Rod Jetton-Day 2 in the Boundary Waters

I am writing this after the fact of course but I did take good notes about our activities.  As I said, our first day we had perfect weather.  No wind, sunshine and a perfect day to arrive and set up camp.  Did I also mention that i caught the first fish that day?  Well that night it started raining and the temp dropped and our tent leaked.  Dad and I shared his old tent and this was the same tent that leaked back in 1982 when he brought me to the BW.

This time I had a nice iso mat to sleep on and I only used a Pancho liner because it was so warm.  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 time all my stuff was dry but Dads bag did get wet.

Not only did it rain that night but it was pouring 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 and times like that 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 year. I was thinking I don't want to come up and sit in the rain next year.  Thankfully the rain stopped but the sun didn't come out and the wind started really blowing.

The good news was how the wind dried everything out and blew the mosquitoes away, but the bad news was it kept us from fishing.  We tried to go out, but only made it to the island about 1/2 a mile from our campsite.  When you were behind it the wind was blocked and it was nice, but once you were unprotected from the wind it got rough on the water.  And when you have 2 guys who weigh hmmmm lets say alot in a canoe with big waves its a bit scary.

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.  The Courts, Grant and I found a trail and hikes to another cove where the wind was not blowing and did some fishing.  We didn't catch much but Grant did catch 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 where finally figured where all the mosquito's came from.  While we wondered around on this "short" cut we were sweating and being bit and Grant was getting tired.  After quite a while we ended up on a cove where we could almost see our campsite and we took another cut through the woods, got off track, overshot our campsite and ran into the same trail we stared our journey on.

Fortunately it was a short and easy walk back to our campsite where Dad was wondering where we were.  We had left him sleeping when we went on our hike and he had no idea where we were.  Once home we started dinner and ate fresh caught fish some grilled potatoes and more red beans and rice.   

Finally, we read Proverbs and had our devotional then turned in about 9:00pm when the sun went down and hoped for better weather.  Here are two short videos, one of us in the rain and one showing how big the waves were.