Day 2, An infinity of Mills Lake

Dawn broke early, about 3:30, and already the winds were too high to launch. Dick, with stiff muscles and sore back, crawled out of the tent to greet the dawn.

Dick's day started well enough with his new electronic toy, the Global Positioning System (GPS). He turned it on, and the GPS receiver began to find signals from various satellites stationed overhead in geosynchronous orbit about Earth. A smile lit his face as the signals ‘came in’, one by one. Soon, Dick had information from enough satellites to fix their location along the river: N 61° latitude and W 118° longitude. Feeling like an early explorer, he plotted their position on the wildly flapping map. He cursed quietly as his pen slipped, and went inside the tent to finish the job.

His day then began to deteriorate. Napping some, but restless, he kept waking to check on the winds. Is it going to blow the whole day? Finally about 7:30, the winds dropped and he rousted April about 8.

It took an appalling three hours to break camp that first morning. “We have to get an earlier start." Dick stared hard at April, who began planning a different procedure. Brush teeth and comb hair in the canoe...

But, heck, that's not the big problem, she thought. “We could cut our time in half by leaving half our junk — the stuff we don’t need — with the canoes.”

"Good idea; we'll reorganize," Dick nodded."Also, let's eat snack stuff for breakfast in the canoe. That'll save time, too."

They launched into a sunny day. The rain from last night a mere memory. Mosquitoes lit on their gear, hitching a ride. "The dirty freeloaders," April growled.

And now they were on, not actually a river, but a lake that seemed big enough to be an ocean. They could not see the opposite shore; it was lost in the horizon. Swamp crowded the immediate lake shore so they couldn’t put in for a much-needed break. Wading through reeds for unknown miles to dry land was out of the question.

They paddled for four and a half hours — straight muscle power, with no boost from a current that had died out when the river broadened into the huge lake. Squalls threatened to the south. Towering black clouds gathered overhead, darkening the river. Lightning flashed, thunder cracked and wind swept across the lake, whipping up huge waves.

April headed the canoe into the reeds where the waves died totally, dampened out by the reeds. Then they pushed out of the reeds as the wind lessened. On they went.

"Look. Some kind of weird river signs," Dick pointed to a series of huge navigational markers, a white triangle, cut off at the top, with an orange stripe down the middle, the first near enough to the river to reflect off the water. The second, some distance into the forest, looked like the first, except inverted. Later, they learned the signs marked the deep channel in the river for freighters.

They paddled over, and landed at a small clearing in the forest around the first sign, probably the only solid land in miles. "This’ll give us a marginal campsite if things don’t improve," he said.

Dick wandered around. "Moose tracks!"

April's eyes lighted up. "I can hardly wait to see one."

The two settled down next to the canoe, and watched the rain drift across the river. Just before it hit, April pulled a small tarp from a canoe, draped it over Dick and ducked in, too. They sat, feeling peaceful — and watched the rain come down on the river, listened to it patter patter on the tarp and looked out at the world. About five o’clock, when the rain finally let up, they pushed off to find a better campsite.

Thunderclouds were again building for more rain that ‘night’ when they came to a rocky point. "Here's a good place to camp," April said, and turned the bow. "Look!" she cried, pointing to a cavorting river otter along the shore.

Miles traveled: 12 (19 km)
Position of campsite: N 61-19-32, W118-26-29