Thursday, May 22, 2014
Usually Auralee and I wake up at 3:00 AM and leave to get on the water early. For this trip, we decided to take it easy. We didn't set an alarm and just left when we were ready. We made it to Ely at about 9:30 AM. We picked up our permit from Voyageur North and headed out to the entry point.
There were two people waiting for a shuttle pickup in the parking lot. Weston had fun jabbering at them while Auralee and I unloaded the canoe and gear. They wished us luck on our adventure.
Auralee carried a backpack and Rohan. Weston was supposed to carry a small backpack, but he said it was too heavy for him. I ended up making three trips carrying all of the gear. It took us about 1 hour 15 minutes to finish the portage. Auralee had to entertain Wes and Rohan at the end of the portage for about an hour while I went back and forth carrying gear. She normally helps carry gear, but one of us had to watch the kids.
I finally finished, quite exhausted. Luckily, we only had a short paddle on Wood Lake. We first had to take the obligatory "beginning of trip" picture. Like father, like son.
Wes was happy with his seat in the canoe.
Rohan was not as happy with his situation. He started out sleeping but soon woke up from his nap. He cried halfway down the lake. Auralee tried comforting him, but to no avail. Sometimes you just wake up cranky. He settled down eventually, though.
The first island campsite was open. We got out of the canoe and looked it over. It was an average campsite. We decided to keep going and see what the other campsites were like. Well, the rest were already taken. We hurried back to the island campsite, hoping we hadn't make a grave mistake in leaving. If it had been taken, we would have to move on to Good Lake, and I didn't want to do another portage like the last one. We were in luck - it was still open. We unloaded the canoe and started setting up camp. Upon landing at the camp, Weston exclaimed, "There are lots and lots of trees!" A true North Dakota boy... Rohan hung out on his green pad while we got everything ready.
Weston wanted to get in the water as soon as possible. We thought it would be too cold for him, but it didn't seem to bother him. He spend much of the next two days wading in the water trying to catch minnows. A couple of minutes later, he ran up to us yelling that he had caught one - and he had!
After getting most of camp set up, it was lunch time. Yum!
After lunch, Mom made Wes a little bow and arrow, which he had fun with the next two days. Then he went back out into the water, this time joined by Mom.
Rohan hung out and played with his toys.
Then it was time for dinner. We brought Bear Creek tortilla soup. It turned out lumpy the first night, but I did much better the second night.
And don't forget about dessert!
Finally it was time for bed.
Our last view of the lake that night was pretty spectacular.
