This weekend we had the BEST time! We portaged a total of 7 lakes (one was the Swan lake which is 2 miles long) mostly against the wind, and with off & on showers. We finally made it to the Moose and saw the lovely brown water. It seems to be stained by vegetation to a nice tea color. We hopped in and made our way under tree-falls, around log-jams and through gravel bars. We continued to travel and thought we must be close to the first camp site within an hour or so. We were wrong. The Moose River (more like a stream this far upstream) is a very winding river. I have a muscle in my shoulder that likes to tighten up after repetitive motion or stress, and we were having both which caused my shoulder to really hurt! Pat's neck hurt from the canoe, and my shoulder hurt from paddling - we were a pair! By 6-ish we finally found the first camp and even a few fish! We had been working so hard to get through the river unscathed that we hadn't really fished at all. This is the hole that had these red salmon. They are either spawning or ready to spawn and are all red and really falling apart at this stage. Still neat, though! The next morning we continued along the never-ending river. The sky was better for the morning, and that had our spirits a bit better. We came around a bend (one of about 47 million), and I heard some grass rustling. Pat and I were talking and I began to talk louder and say "hello!" Once I saw the brown bear, I began to loudly say "bear" and Pat began to draw his pistol! He saw us and pretty much hi-tailed it out of there! Whew! It was only 15 yards away or so at the closest! Another many hours later and another 27 million bends, we came around and saw a moose cow and her baby! That was sweet! They weren't too interested in leaving the river and Pat had to slap the water with his paddle to make them leave and give us a chance to continue! As we continued to wonder "are we there yet?" we began to loose patience with each other, as I'm sure most of you reading can identify with! We were both quite ready to end our quest by the time we finally reached the bridge in Sterling. We can't quite figure the "charm" in this particular trip, but perhaps in our inflated view of our expertise, we overestimated
the difficulty. I suppose if we mentally prepared ourselves for a difficult or long run, we may have had a better time. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the mosquitos! One was utterly unable to escape them except in the tent. It made eating meals especially quick, and stopping to try and fish, frustrating. Well, despite our SUPER experience on the Moose, I'm sure we will look back and laugh - someday.
This weekend we had the BEST time! We portaged a total of 7 lakes (one was the Swan lake which is 2 miles long) mostly against the wind, and with off & on showers. We finally made it to the Moose and saw the lovely brown water. It seems to be stained by vegetation to a nice tea color. We hopped in and made our way under tree-falls, around log-jams and through gravel bars. We continued to travel and thought we must be close to the first camp site within an hour or so. We were wrong. The Moose River (more like a stream this far upstream) is a very winding river. I have a muscle in my shoulder that likes to tighten up after repetitive motion or stress, and we were having both which caused my shoulder to really hurt! Pat's neck hurt from the canoe, and my shoulder hurt from paddling - we were a pair! By 6-ish we finally found the first camp and even a few fish! We had been working so hard to get through the river unscathed that we hadn't really fished at all. This is the hole that had these red salmon. They are either spawning or ready to spawn and are all red and really falling apart at this stage. Still neat, though! The next morning we continued along the never-ending river. The sky was better for the morning, and that had our spirits a bit better. We came around a bend (one of about 47 million), and I heard some grass rustling. Pat and I were talking and I began to talk louder and say "hello!" Once I saw the brown bear, I began to loudly say "bear" and Pat began to draw his pistol! He saw us and pretty much hi-tailed it out of there! Whew! It was only 15 yards away or so at the closest! Another many hours later and another 27 million bends, we came around and saw a moose cow and her baby! That was sweet! They weren't too interested in leaving the river and Pat had to slap the water with his paddle to make them leave and give us a chance to continue! As we continued to wonder "are we there yet?" we began to loose patience with each other, as I'm sure most of you reading can identify with! We were both quite ready to end our quest by the time we finally reached the bridge in Sterling. We can't quite figure the "charm" in this particular trip, but perhaps in our inflated view of our expertise, we overestimated 
the difficulty. I suppose if we mentally prepared ourselves for a difficult or long run, we may have had a better time. Oh yes, I almost forgot to mention the mosquitos! One was utterly unable to escape them except in the tent. It made eating meals especially quick, and stopping to try and fish, frustrating. Well, despite our SUPER experience on the Moose, I'm sure we will look back and laugh - someday.
3 comments:
sounds like fun! (not!)
whao--- enough of the bears already!! you two are amazing and I am so glad i saw just a small piece of it there--the salmon were alot prettier when i saw em! miss you1 Love, Mom "P"
those fish are creepy...
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