Day 4 Part 2 - Bordering on Exhaustion

I could have kissed the campground. For a full thirty minutes, we just sat on the ground before making any effort to assemble the site. When we finally moseyed over, our seasoned hands set up the tent efficiently. Lionel was able to handle most of the poles and clip the tent in himself. We decided to hang our Hope in Motion flag and the hammock as well. Lionel particularly enjoyed lounging in it with a cup of trail mix.

Charlie and Lionel wanted one last chance to catch a fish big enough to eat. They did catch another one, but it was too small. Though I didn’t really want to swim, I knew Lionel would want to seize the opportunity. I told him to put on his swimsuit for one final dip. Just as we were about to get in, Charlie called out that he’d caught a sizeable fish. Lionel ran over, tripped on a large rock, and cut his knee up pretty badly. I grabbed the first aid kit to bandage him. With crocodile tears in his eyes, he asked, “So we don’t get to go swimming?” The cut was bad enough, and the shoreline was rocky, so we decided to skip the swim. I soothed things over by reading a few chapters of The Ghost Library in the tent.

Once we reemerged, Lionel was back to his spritely self. He went to investigate what Charlie was doing with the fish. Since we didn’t have a cutting board, Charlie improvised by using the blade of the canoe to cut and debone it. As he worked, it began to rain. I took Lionel on a wood hunt to gather enough lumber to keep the fire from going out.

Fortunately, the rain was just a drizzle, and we were able to cook the fish in Crisco and breading, along with some summer sausage. It was by far the best meal of the trip. I’m not a seafood lover, but if I were to rank the top ten meals of my life, fish would probably account for four of them, and this one was vying for a top spot. Lucky for me, Lionel didn’t enjoy the fish as much as I did, so I got a larger portion.

After the rain, we were treated to the sight of a rainbow followed by the most picturesque sunset. I finally got the hang of the bear hang and was able to suspend it the regulated twelve feet without any help. We listened to the evening forecast one last time and counted our lucky stars that Friday would be calm, with a gentle wind at our backs.

Tucking in for the night, Lionel and I were both exhausted but deeply satisfied. According to the map, we had a mere 2.2 miles to paddle the next day, with no portages.