Paddling In The Wind



We saw two painted turtles sunning themselves.  One had left when the picture was taken.

So happy to find Labrador Tea!

Light rain fell on our tents last night.  The sound was comforting and when I looked up, I could see the mosquitoes waiting for us above our tent yet below the rain flap.  We had french toast for breakfast.  We had two big packages of oreos in our supplies so we tried french oreo toast.  If this worked, we could make big bucks at the State Fair.  Yeah, not so much;  the cookies were soggy inside.  The day was very windy.  We paddled to Cone Bay which was into the wind.  As we got away from the protection of the islands and into the major open water of Brule Lake, the waves and swells got higher and higher.  I was in the bow and we were paddling like mad.  The bow of the canoe would rise with a wave and slam down in the trough between waves.  Sometimes the water broke over the top of the canoe. The water was thrilling and refreshing.  I leaned back when we were between waves so the front of the canoe did not go down so far.  Were we canoeing in the boundary waters or riding a bull at the rodeo?  Between leaning back and paddling like mad I was really getting a work out.  We had to work our buts off to make any progress.  We could not stop to get a drink of water or to take a picture or rest our arms.  We had to keep paddling as hard as we could until we could get to water that was not as rough. After 90 minutes or so, we paddled into Cone Bay where we could take a breather.  That was an exciting paddle.  From Cone Bay we paddled into South Cone Lake.  The water was high enough that we could float into Middle Cone Lake.  We did touch bottom a few times and I could see the tops of the rocks were flecked with red, silver and blue paint from other canoes.  The channel between the lakes was lovely.  We stopped for lunch on an island campsite in Middle Cone Lake. We had sandwiches and fruit and oreos.  We headed into North Cone Lake and tried to paddle through but the water wasn't deep enough.  We had to get out and walk the canoe through the passage. The water was flowing very fast against us and the rocks were slippery with moss.  I was asked to help another camper get through this.  Actually he did much better than I did as evidenced by the scrapes and bruises I now have on my right elbow and both knees.  We canoed across North Cone Lake grateful to be out of the wind and high waves on Brule Lake.  We came to the portage to Winschell Lake. Our guide found some Labrador tea. He said it can be found near stands of black spruce.  He said black spruce will have their feet in the water while white spruce will be farther back from the lake.  Later that evening he brewed some Labrador tea, something the Voyagers also did.  I tried it. I think it tastes better than green or black tea but not as good as ginger tea.  It had a slightly medicinal taste.  By now it was 3 o'clock and we had spent 5 hours getting here.  We decided to head back.  We scared a Momma canvasback duck and her five babies out of the shallows.  They looked put out with us.  Instead of trying to walk through the treacherous rocks again, we portaged across which was much easier. The walking path was so easy in comparison.  We canoed past MIddle Cone and South Cone.  Once we got out of Cone Bay the waves and swells were huge on Brule Lake.  It was awesome.  With the strong wind on our back, we were CRUISING!  We rode each wave like a surfer.  It was so fun.  The shore line went by so fast the trees were blurry.  With each stroke of the paddle, it felt like we went five times further than we had this morning.  In no time at all we were back to our little island.  From a distance, our island is shaped like a letter B flat on it's back.  Today the paddling was a challenge but when we all pulled together, we got it done.