The Good, The Bad and the Ugly vs The Best: A Day in the Life of Bert

I am behind in keeping up with posts. It’s not that I’ve run out of things to say, I’m simply out of gas at the end of most days.

So, I’ve decided to give you a day in the life of Bert this time ‘round as opposed to the usual chronological order of things. Perhaps this will help put into perspective what out of gas looks like from the front seat of a canoe facing backwards.

The picture above is what zero dark-thirty looks like at Pine Bluff. Zero dark-thirty translates to 03:15am.

Why do anything at 03:15 in the morning? And well you may ask. I was blown into Pine Bluff at 3pm previous afternoon. It was blowing so hard that I couldn’t control the canoe going downwind. You read that correctly, out of control going downwind.

I had started paddling at 6am that day determined to take advantage of some decent weather. Thunderstorms the precious evening had forced me onto a mud bank not fit for a beaver. The bank didn’t bother me as much as the early stop. Distance lost due to that stop and the next forced on me by an hellacious wind could only be remedied by an ungodly wake-up call at 03:15.

The immediate problem at hand is clearing Cedar Lake. It’s huge and the Saskatchewan River empties right in the middle of it. Once on the lake and off the river, you are effectively out of sight of land. And once out of sight of land, you are out of options if things go bad. Like the weather. Or like one of the thunderstorms that brew up around here constantly.

My plan, then, was to get up early, take advantage of whatever good weather providence would chose to deliver, and paddle like hell non-stop. I would try and make up the distance lost to the early exits with some good, old-fashioned, arm-busting effort.