I got up at 9 and cleaned up. This was our only day with a scheduled item and that was the supply boat at 9:30. I repacked the coolers for the new ice, got the trash ready to be picked up and cleaned up the boat a bit. Then we cooked sausage egg and cheese on bagel sandwiches. The staff showed up during breakfast and we took a break to help get gas and ice. We had blue moon with an orange slice in it with breakfast.
After breakfast we swam a bit then then took a short hike that we cut short for bathroom breaks. Then I worked on my post about yesterday. We packed up some beer and water and took and extended hike to explore the whole island. We made our way to a large cliff I had seen from the water that had potential for jumping off. We took a break on this cliff and drank the beer.
We could see grass growing in the water beneath the cliff and decided it may not be deep enough to jump off. So we bushwhacked our way back to the boat for a short cut and then grabbed the rafts and played on the rope swing a bit.
Heath scratched her knuckles
so we left the swing and swam out to a mini island off from ours. It was an easy swim out w/ the wind pushing our raft out. We took some pictures, drank some tea and played around. Then we swam back against the wind. We were ready to leave the island but not done with the swing so went back for some more jumps.
I tried to learn to do a good flip off he swing but never made it look smooth.
Then we got out and dried off on the roof of the boat. Once dry we left the island. We drove east and north on up the lake and Heath decided to take a nap. I drove on looking for a good spot. I was working our way toward some bluffs at the far north side of the lake. I found a few good campsite areas and decided to anchor for a while until Heath woke up from her nap and have her help beach.
This worked ok for a bit but not as good as the day before and the strong wind quickly blew us close to shore. I had to wake up Heath and quickly maneuver away and wind up the anchor at the same time. We went to a nearby campsite. The wind was strong, H was half asleep and our landing did not go smoothly. We came in too fast and at an angle so 1 pontoon got stuck on a rock and then the wind blew us sideways.
I got in and held the boat from blowing into the rocks and tried to push us out. H put it in full force backup but we didn’t budge. Some fisherman were watching and came over to help. They hooked on and pulled us out. We had left our plank on the shore though. So after a couple of loops we tried to get in again. The wind was still too strong and H could not hold the boat against the shore long enough for me to tie us in. We tried for a while then abandoned. I pushed the boat back and swam the plank over. and we moved on up the lake looking for a spot not directly in the wind.
We were getting far from the lodge and there were not as many campsites. We had an idea where one was out of the main area in a bay. However there was a boat in the area with some people playing. We anchored again out in the middle to wait for them to leave. We barely got the anchor at the bottom before they left the spot so we cranked it up and pulled in. It was a little rough as our nerves were on edge but we had no real problems beaching. It looked like we had some serious problems though as I got a bloody nose just as we were pulling in. I had to get us tied up quick and did not worry about the nose till the boat was secure.
We were tied up at the end of a cliff that was about 2 feet above the water and 4 feet deep. The cliff ran along the shore getting higher and higher with the top part 30 or so feet off the water. We got out and explored around. We found several fire pits, the toilet and a great view of the bay and lake. The whole area was big black flat rock and easy to climb. It almost looked like asphalt after an earthquake or something.
The hiking, exploring and #2s made us hot so we went for a swim and cleaned up a bit in the water and Heath shaved her legs. Then we went in and having skipped lunch cooked up 2 massive steaks, a pile of rice, a can of peas, and the last of our asparagus.
We stuffed our faces and had more then half of the steak left over. Then we got the camera, a couple of beers and hiked to the top most part of the cliff with the best view of the the sun.
After it set we started a small fire in a grove in the rocks as the lake went from blue, to yellow, to orange, to pink, and then to dark blue. As our small fire burned down the bugs began to come out. We had not gotten a mosquito bite yet but they were really out tonight so we retreated to the boat.
We lit the propane light and made up a drinking game called sevens. The game was ok but Heath was worried about mosquitos that were getting in and we were too stuffed from dinner to get drunk or get too excited. My wrist had been bothering me and I took off my watch so I was not sure when we went to sleep or when we got up the next morning.