Day One June 25: Attean Lake and the Portage

This is a distance shot of Attean Lake. When we saw this we were a little overwhelmed at the adventure we were about to experience! How amazing is this!

The men couldn't believe their ears when we said we could be up and ready to leave by 7 am - and athough we had a sleepless night of anticipation - we were!

At the lake waiting for the canoes by 7:30!Attean Landing Boat Launch

Luckily this fog burned off and we could find our way across the lake. It ended up being a beautiful day.Loading up the canoes and saying goodbye to our cell phones and modern conveniences for three days! (Please note that Homer is prominently featured in the above two photos! Homer was our best friend on this trip.) And we're off! The menfolk were equipped for fishing along the way.Beautiful sky!The lake was like glass!By 11 AM we were at the beach after a 4 & 3/4 mile paddle getting ready to set up camp.
Don't we look ready?Inflatable air mattresses were brought along for extra padding at night - but luckily we had four! The girls hopped in the water using the floaties to relax once camp was set up. It was awesome! I would show a picture but would have to shoot you if you saw it - so no pic of the delightful floating scene, only this one of us inflating the little lovelies. We were convinced the whole trip would be this idyllic - HA! While we floated, the menfolk hit the waters to catch delicious trout for dinner! (You will have to imagine this because for some reason I didn't get a picture of the fisherman - but they looked like they could have been on the cover of Today's Fisherman. I missed a real photo op - but you know, I was out on a floatie.)

The sky started looking ominous and it poured buckets while Ron, Tyler and I took the first portage trip with a canoe. Well, Ron and Tyler took the canoe, I carried paddles, wheels, etc and occasionally helped them heft the canoe up on their soldiers. We got soaked! We had a portage cart that would only work for about 1/3 of the way because the path got too rugged. (2 & 1/2 miles round trip)
Ron did a great job of cooking breakfasts and delicious dinners for us every day. The first day we had BBQ chicken, Venison, Corn on the Cob, Baked Potatoes, and that is FRESHLY CAUGHT trout in the foil. All that after the girls kept the fire burning waiting for us to return from the first portage, so Ron could prepare this delightful feast. Doesn't it look yummy?

More portaging. And only the FIRST DAY of portaging. The path was rugged - hilly - lots of roots, rocks, and mud! There were many places where the trail crossed wetlands and there were slippery planks to cross.Did I mention the mud?A long walk down the tracks with a heavy load on our (their) backs.I should mention that the two youngsters on the trip - Scott and Jeff - made this portage look like child's play. OK maybe not that easy, but they tossed those canoes around like they were featherweight and managed two trips with canoes on the first day. Many thanks go to them for their muscles, youth, and brawn!

We spent some time in our tent playing the alphabet game before turning in for the night.I guess I might as well confess that it was another sleepless night. I prayed might hard for a little shut eye - and was blessed to sleep soundly from 1-3 AM while it thundered and the lightning lit up the sky. But the 3 am trip we all took with Homer out to the woods woke us up and once Ron started banging around acting like a bear in the woods at 4:30 am - that was the end of our attempt at slumber. Thankfully we didn't sleep on the beach like Jeff and Scott - I would have freaked if a snake had tried to take up residence in the warm sand under my tent!

Now, as you prepare for tomorrow's post - remember - 4 women, in the woods, no shower, no potty except for Homer, and no sleep, not to mention all after a day of hard work. Which one of us had the breakdown?