Words From the Windbound - SAGANAGA LAKE - Day Twenty Three

You know how you know when you are tired? When you both fall asleep in the middle of a game of cribbage. After a 4am wake up and 28km through some honking winds and waiting out some thunderstorms along they way, we found ourselves sound asleep mid afternoon with our hand of cards splayed out around us. After a quick dinner we intended to rest up for an early and long day tomorrow to catch up on distance we had lost over the past few windy days.

Our alarm went off and there was no rustling of the wind to be heard. I did a sun salutation on the granite rock edge of the campsite while the water boiled for breakfast. Things were aligning well... That is until we got past our only portage of the day to find the Northeast Arm of Saganaga Lake was experiencing an entirely different climate system.

We proceeded like a snail along the shore but even there we could not escape the whitecaps. At the end of a moderately protected stretch (read: we were paddling our hardest but at least not moving backwards) we found ourselves in some 4 foot swells. Erik could see through the material of the boat, and his feet on the hull were raised completely out of the water as we soared up one wave to crash down into the next with a stream of water gushing over as we dropped down. Erik was having the time of his life whooping over each roller while I tried to spot a protected nook for lunch and potentially the rest of the day.

After our wraps and dried mango the waves were showing no sign of leaving. At this point they had really overstayed their welcome but we couldn't do much other than relax for the afternoon. I've pulled out my sleeping bag and snuggled up with my book while Erik is setting up a tarp to give us a break from the scorching sun. We're looking out at a lake dotted with small rocky islands. There's worse places to have to spend an afternoon.

While we planned to get going early the next morning the wind had other things to say. Other than a brief delusional episode on the lake during which we gained 500m of distance along the shore as well as a canoe half full of water we gave in to nature's wishes. A southwest wind blowing with near constant gusts of 45km/h up a southwest shore when we had to go southwest was not an obstacle we would be overcoming today. Lucky for us the cliffs we pulled up to had a mossy surface on top where we had camp set up by 8:00am with a view of the wild waters beneath us. We dozed away most of the day and can't wait to get into Quetico tomorrow.