Me with the first fish!
As I said, our first day we had perfect weather. No wind, lots of sunshine and a perfect day to arrive and set up camp. Did I also mention that I caught the first fish that day? It was a good thing we had nice weather because that night it started raining and the temperature dropped. We were all thankful to have the camp set up. I was sharing a tent with dad and unfortunately, our tent leaked. This was the same tent that leaked back in 1982 when he brought me to the BW the first time.
This time I had a nice iso mat to sleep on and I only used a Pancho liner because it was so warm. Thankfully, my sleeping bag was rolled up and didn’t get wet. In 1982 we were on the lake fishing and Dad wouldn’t let me put my poncho on because he said I could get dry cloths when we got back to camp. Of course when we got back to camp my bag and cloths were soaked. This year all my stuff was dry, but Dads bag did get wet.
Not only did it rain that night, but we woke up to a cold downpour that morning. We hung up a tarp to keep us dry, but the wind was blowing hard, which made the rain impossible to avoid. We couldn’t build a fire to cook breakfast and once we were wet it was cold. Times like that are what make camping miserable. That’s when Dad said he thought he was getting to old to come up there and hike in. He said I would have to bring everyone up next time. I was thinking I don’t want to come up and sit in the rain next
Eating pop-tarts under the tarp in the cold rain.
time either. Thankfully the rain stopped, but the sun didn’t come out and the wind started really blowing. That made us even colder but it did dry everything out, and it blew the mosquitoes away.
The wind made big waves and we tried to head out on the lake and fish but it was just to rough. We made it to a small island about 1/2 a mile from our campsite and used it for a wind break. When we were behind it the wind was blocked and it was nice, but once we were unprotected from the wind it got rough on the water. With two guys in a canoe who weighed… hmmmm lets say a lot, it was a bit scary with the big waves.
So we stayed on shore and took a nap with no mosquito’s bothering us while we enjoyed the afternoon. We did fish from our campsite, but didn’t catch much. Then Courts, Grant and I found a trail and hiked to another cove that was blocked from the wind and did some fishing. Grant caught the biggest lake perch on our trip in that cove. After that Grant got hung and lost the only lure we had so we decided to hike back and Courts thought he knew a quicker way through the woods that would come out on a different trail.
I don’t know if you have ever hiked through woods that have never been logged and probably have never had a human walk through them but it is rough. Tress were blown over everywhere and the moss was thick and spongy. There were pockets of stagnant water that served as mosquito maternity wards. While we wondered around on this “short” cut we were sweating and being attacked by mosquitoes. After quite a while we ended up on a high spot overlooking our cove and campsite so we took another “short” cut through the woods, got off track, overshot our campsite and ran into the same trail we started our journey on.
First night at dinner before the rain.
Fortunately it was a short and easy walk back to our campsite because Grant was getting tired. Dad was wondering where we were because we had left him sleeping when we went on our hike. Once home we started dinner and ate fresh caught fish some grilled potatoes and red beans and rice.
Finally, we read a Proverbs and had our devotional then turned in about 9:00 p.m. when the sun went down, hoping for better weather in the morning.
Here are two short videos, one of us in the rain and one showing how big the waves were.