Wednesday, August 14,2024
Our last day would be our best fishing day. We caught 15 Lake trout and 6 or 7 pike. In the bay where we caught most of the Lakers, a bear cub followed us around the shoreline. We were about to give him a fish when we saw his mother with two other cubs. Michelle said these were likely the ones we had seen a couple of days ago.
It was a weird day. the sun poked through a hole in the clouds, but the hole didn’t move. About 2:00 Michelle told us to put on rain-gear as it was pretty dark in the west. At one point Ron said he smelled smoke. Michelle and I didn’t smell it at first, but later we got a whiff of smoke.
It’s a little sad to think this was our last day and our last wonderful meal by Patti. Like all adventures, it wasn’t how we envisioned it, but in many ways it was so much more than we could have imagined. Mostly it was the kindness and humility of these people. What they have built here is amazing. The vastness of these waters is cool on one hand and frightening on the other. Yves said many have gotten lost on these waters. Without the right equipment, you could be in serious trouble. Even Michelle used a Garmin GPS at times, and he has a satellite phone in his backpack and a lighter on his belt. with the waters being so low, islands of rocks popped up in the middle of the river where they are usually not seen. Hit one of those going full speed and things could go bad in a hurry. I admired Michelle’s vigilance, always paying attention, reading the water and the sky.
