Scott, Scott, Zane, and Elaine
Scott, Scott, Zane, and Elaine
After the trolley ride into Burditt Lake, I spent the remainder of the afternoon looking over my shoulder at building clouds while paddling into a brisk headwind and steepening chop. By 5:30pm I was done. I didn’t really want to make the day more interesting than it need be by getting caught out in the open.
I parked it at a small island in the middle of the lake, set up camp, and tried to figure out what was wrong with my satellite tracker. Problems with tje Iridium GO! had been compounding and I was beginning to feel vulnerable without it. How would anyone find me if something went wrong without a connection to the outside world?
As forecast, I begin the next day’s push in rain. Also as forecast, the weather cleared mid-morning and by noon, the Manomin River system was behind me. A short stint with Karta was all that separated from Rainy Lake
and the last stretch of big lake fr
there to Thunder Bay.
Stopping at the marina before I started the pull, I got a flood update for the put-in at Rainy Lake. Good to go was the word and after a brief chat, two sandwiches and an entire walleye fillet, I was off, Karta moaning and groaning as I yanked it up the gravel road.
I made Birch Point at 4:20pm. Just leaving the docks were two Scotts (senior and junior), and Zane (Scott Jr’s son). They figured me for a day-tripper with too much gear in the boat. When I told them I had started the 1st of April in Vancouver, I got the wide-eyed double-take from the three of them. Scott Sr, a canoeist, started firing questions rapid-fire and before I could answer half of them, I was invited to stop at their cabin for something cold to drink later that afternoon. They roared off in a handsome, high-powered skiff, Zane waving good-bye, as I bent to the task of getting Karta put away and Kai Nani seaworthy.
The picture above is their cabin, the covered veranda my home for the night. No bugs, not bothered by the thunderstorm that swept through late in the evening, and a real-life table turned the place into a palace. I slept
the sleep of the dead.
Scott, Scott, Zane, and Elaine (Scott Sr’s wife) were full of questions. Zane why I can’t seem to catch a fish to save my life (he pulled 16 rock bass oit of the lake off the dock where Kai Nani was parked that day) and Elaine and the Scotts about everything else. Educators and teachers by profession, they asked about everything, shaking their head in unison at most answers. We had a great time, laughing about mishaps and adventures gone awry past and present.
The cabin is a family treasure that I hope Zane gets to bring his children and grandchildren to. Lacking everything in the way of modern convenience, paradoxically it has everything you actually need.
Real people. The best people. My kind of people.
I parked it at a small island in the middle of the lake, set up camp, and tried to figure out what was wrong with my satellite tracker. Problems with tje Iridium GO! had been compounding and I was beginning to feel vulnerable without it. How would anyone find me if something went wrong without a connection to the outside world?
As forecast, I begin the next day’s push in rain. Also as forecast, the weather cleared mid-morning and by noon, the Manomin River system was behind me. A short stint with Karta was all that separated from Rainy Lake
and the last stretch of big lake fr
there to Thunder Bay.
Stopping at the marina before I started the pull, I got a flood update for the put-in at Rainy Lake. Good to go was the word and after a brief chat, two sandwiches and an entire walleye fillet, I was off, Karta moaning and groaning as I yanked it up the gravel road.
I made Birch Point at 4:20pm. Just leaving the docks were two Scotts (senior and junior), and Zane (Scott Jr’s son). They figured me for a day-tripper with too much gear in the boat. When I told them I had started the 1st of April in Vancouver, I got the wide-eyed double-take from the three of them. Scott Sr, a canoeist, started firing questions rapid-fire and before I could answer half of them, I was invited to stop at their cabin for something cold to drink later that afternoon. They roared off in a handsome, high-powered skiff, Zane waving good-bye, as I bent to the task of getting Karta put away and Kai Nani seaworthy.
The picture above is their cabin, the covered veranda my home for the night. No bugs, not bothered by the thunderstorm that swept through late in the evening, and a real-life table turned the place into a palace. I slept
the sleep of the dead.
Scott, Scott, Zane, and Elaine (Scott Sr’s wife) were full of questions. Zane why I can’t seem to catch a fish to save my life (he pulled 16 rock bass oit of the lake off the dock where Kai Nani was parked that day) and Elaine and the Scotts about everything else. Educators and teachers by profession, they asked about everything, shaking their head in unison at most answers. We had a great time, laughing about mishaps and adventures gone awry past and present.
The cabin is a family treasure that I hope Zane gets to bring his children and grandchildren to. Lacking everything in the way of modern convenience, paradoxically it has everything you actually need.
Real people. The best people. My kind of people.