BWCA Day #4

Thursday, August 28th

The rain had stopped by the time we all woke up. The sun was trying to come out but the clouds seemed to keep circling around. We had a breakfast of oatmeal and hot coffee. The tents tried to dry but we ended up backing them a little wet so that we could get a start on the day.

Today’s paddle took us back through Alpine and into Seagull Lake. We had two portages, one of 48 rods and one of 102 rods. (1 Rod = 16 ½” for those of you keeping score at home!) We made it to an island in Seagull for lunch. By this time, I think that we all could sense the tiredness in the group. Kristen almost tripped over a toad while walking up to the campsite. The reward for the toad, besides being still a live, was a full model shoot worthy of National Geographic or perhaps Vogue.

The sun was shining and the wind was at our backs that afternoon so the rest of the paddle went quickly. We found one of the rare “sand” beach campsites. The site was set in a little cove with one of the best views from the latrine yet! Camp was setup and the tents began to dry out. The rest of the afternoon was very casual with a swim and coffee.

While getting dinner ready, Dad and Kristen hiked up to a high point near our campsite. This is where they found that dinner would come with a shower. We had about 45 mins. of T-storms while we had our dinner of scalped potatoes. All the rain gear we had been carrying paid off and everyone stayed dry under the tarp. Once the rain stopped we hike back to the high point to see a beautiful rainbow and sunset. This was truly one of the prettiest scenes of the trip. The sunset was also fully documented via digital photographs thus creating the title for Kristen’s picture portfolio, “Toads and Sunsets.”