Everyone kind of needed a down day, and judging from the time people poked out of their tents, the main activity for today was likely to be no activity at all. Everyone made the most of it by catching up on sleep. Mike, AJ, and I were up pretty much on our normal schedule. You have to really work at staying asleep when someone decides its time to exit a cramped four-man tent.
Mike and I started out by trying our luck at fishing. Unfortunately, the fish seemed to be sleeping in also. Not even a nibble. AJ decided to give it a try, and its hard to say if his luck was better or not. It was the first time I've ever seen anyone use a lure to actually catch a clam! It literally had the hook inside the shell. Unbelievable. Either AJ needs to reel in his line quicker or this was the world's fastest closing clamshell. He managed to pry it open enough to free it from the hook. I guess if we'd caught eleven more we could try a clambake. Amazingly, about thirty minutes later I saw my second ever clam fishing success as Al reeled in another one. The mollusks were really biting.
Later that day Cam hooked something monstrous. Unfortunately, the only thing we got from it was a good story, as the line snapped almost as soon as it struck. We all agreed it was something big. We ended our fishing today with another nice 17 inch bass caught by Mike. Thanks to his fine selection for our spice kit, we had a taste of cajun spicy and herb/lemon bass as an appetizer. Quite delicious.
The crew (and Drew) spent a good part of today napping, fishing, napping, reading, napping, playing cards, or writing. While we have been doing great paddling and portaging all day/every day for the last five days, it seems everyone is greatful for time hanging out around camp. Why not? Everything around us, from the lake that looks like a sheet of glass to the painted turtles that pop up and wait for us to send them our fish leftovers just sort of moves at a pace that encourages everything to slow down. You can't fight Mother Nature.
Cleaning up from dinner we saw another eagle, just barely above the trees overhead. A seagull (clearly not the brightest of birds) was pestering it as it flew. Reminded me of the way other small birds attack the hawks at home when they get to close. It was our closest sighting yet. Spectacular.
We glimpsed an otter today. It was foraging on the shore across the lake (Twin lake is rather small). Maybe it likes to feed on the apparently abundant clams. The wolves serenaded us again tonight. It is a haunting sound, but one that is nice to hear from the slight shelter of an island.
We started to plan some alternate routes so we can reach our 100 mile goal. Unfortunately we can't plan as easily to make sure I see the moose I'm still hoping to find. Because we have a limited set of lakes between us and Atikokan (that we have maps for), we've decided to take the longer way to each point, rather than the shortest, most direct path. We'll meander around some of the islands and follow the shoreline more than if our goal was to simply get through as quickly as possible. We have plenty of time and if the wind and weather cooperate, we'll have fairly light days for the rest of the trip. Drew is confident we'll get our 100 miles.
So well rested, and pretty well dried out, we'll head back on the water in the morning. It was a nice break, but its also fun to see what each new lake offers, and get caught up in the quiet routine of paddling. Wandering through each new lake and trail, much like napping, is highly under-rated.
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