Day 3 7/8

Wednesday 

Up this morning around 7 with the standard coffee, granola, yogurt, black raspberries breakfast. We packed up our island camp to overcast skies and a little worry of rain, but a calm front. Got into the bay, and the wind started picking up pretty good. Most of the canoe back is fairly sheltered, but the first stretches are the most exposed. We had put a ground cloth over the gear as a precaution for rain but it was coming undone in the increasing wind, so we decided to pull off in a bay to resituate it. When we tried pulling out across the point again, we quickly found that we basically weren’t making any progress. Each paddle yielded maybe 1 ft or less. At this point, we realized that we needed to turn around and head back to the cove to assess options. Turning the canoe around was a bear in itself and I fully realized at that point how bad it really was. I won’t say we lost control of the canoe, but there were moments when we were broadside against the wind trying to turn around where I started getting nervous. 

We got back to the small cove and beached the canoe, then flipped it over as winds increased. Rain was actually minimal, but winds were as strong as I’ve experienced outdoors, at least when noticeably inhibiting progress. We happened to be at a houseboat slip, so mike went over and talked to them about the forecast if they had a radio. They said an approaching thunder storm in the next ~30 min and then sunny by afternoon. We waited for maybe and hour until it had been calmer for a while (no storm though) and decided to load up again.

The rest of the trip back was smooth sailing. Calmer breezes and increasingly sunny skies. Got into international falls around mid afternoon, took a spin though town and walked to the border bridge. It seems a little touristy, but surprisingly sparse for a town seemingly in the thick of cabin country.

Headed over to the municipal campground which is right at the city beach and got a spot (there is only one other party here tonight). The beach is pristine, sandy, rainy lake bliss. Very nice. Went for a dip, then walked down to “downtown” Rainer to a distillery for a drink, then a brewery across the street. They didn’t have a full menu there, so we ordered a takeout burger from the grill down the block, which I think is the equivalent to a “cycle” of Rainer commercial establishments. All hit the exact niche we were searching for. I’d be over the moon for a brewery on a patio overlooking a gorgeous lake on any road trip. We found a gem 4 hours from our backyard.

Hard to believe that we woke up looking at pines in “wilderness” this morning. It was another great day.