July 25, 2023
Today starts with a nice layer of dew on the gear. My rough night in the hammock a full day behind me I slept pretty well last night and am feeling better than yesterday. Maybe it was the sound of water rushing over the falls?
We take last looks at the falls around camp while breakfast is quickly consumed and camp is packed up. Today’s target is somewhere around the bottom of Jackfish Bay of Basswood as we’re starting to plot the last days of our time in the BWCA. I’m melancholy, knowing that we’re more than halfway through our trek and there are less days ahead of us than behind. I try to stay present in the moment, but I always have a tinge of sadness when I know the trip will be over soon.
Once camp is struck we’ve eaten enough of our food to condense the two food packs down to one “grey whale” and so get some space in one of the canoes. The portage back to Basswood goes quickly and we’re soon on the water on what is turning out to be a decent, but cloudy day.
The paddle goes by fairly quickly. So quickly, in fact, that as the lead boat we get so far ahead of the rest of the group at times that we lose sight of the rear boat. Oops, I guess that’s what happens when you’ve got two strong adults in the middle and the stern….
We’re only on the water 3 hours today before we hit the island campsite at the South end of Jackfish Bay as planned. It’s a nice campsite, with a beach landing and the fire grate up high above the lake. The Scouts spend the day fishing and swimming, and Clay lands a nice sized smallmouth bass that gets released back to the lake but not before he brings it up to camp for photos.
Dinner tonight is breakfast for dinner – hash browns and SPAM singles. It’s a hit with everyone and has minimal cleanup, which is nice. I will say this is one of the nicer aspects of going on a BSA trip versus one that I planned myself – the adults don’t have to do any dishes, it’s all on the Scouts.
Bellies full, we discuss plans for the next day. Our intention is to get up early before dawn and paddle out at first light. This, of course, is if Mother Nature will give us good weather for our planned 3AM wake up. Armed with a weather radio, I know when we turn in to bed that it’s not exactly a sure thing as there’s a non-zero chance for strong storms to come through overnight. We can’t do it if we don’t plan to do it, though, and so we hit the sack early with plans to get up early.
Lakes paddled: Basswood
Miles paddled: 7.6 today, 43.8 total
Portages: 0 today, 6 total
The day’s GPS track:
