Daily Trip Log Reports

August 2: day 22
What a difference a day makes! Our outlook is more cheery today. We had the chance to explore the lake further and we're now confident that the Beaver should have no problem taking off.

 

For the entire time we spent on the small no-name lake on the McFarlane River, I had a superb "office" with a spectacular view. See More Photos!

I was quite tired when I wrote the report for the last two days. I wanted to get to bed early and had connected to the satellite earlier in the day than normal. Before retiring for the night, all of us tried our luck at another wolf call to see if we could get a response from the wolves we'd seen earlier. 

The reply didn't happen right away, but it was more than we could ever have hoped for. About five minutes after we called, the wolves started howling back from our right. We looked that direction and the whole pack was lined up on a ridge overlooking our campsite. I put on my long telephoto lens and we took turns watching the adults and pups howl. It was great.

Overnight, the wind picked up and came from the south. Deb woke up at one point in time and heard wolves howling again. I was too tired and didn't hear. Before dawn, I did wake up to the acrid smell of wood smoke. Somewhere south of us, there must be a forest fire. It seems too far away to cause us concern and it's only a problem when the wind comes from the south.

Dawn was still and quiet with not a whisper of wind. Brendan and I got up first while Deb and Kyle slept in. The two of us did a few chores and I took a number of nice reflection photos in the early morning light. Across the lake from us, two eagles were fighting over a fish carcass while a gull waited patiently for them to get their fill. The setting was beautiful, the birds were reflecting against a backdrop of gnarled black spruce which was capped by the drifting sands from a huge dune behind the trees. It was all quite breathtaking. Just to the left of the eagles, the white and black wolf we saw earlier were playing in the weeds.

After our morning chores were done, Brendan wanted me to take him fishing. We explored a few areas of the lake we hadn't done before. We hauled in a few more pike, but that seemed to be the only fish species in the lake taking his lures. We put them all back.

Now that we are at a stationary camp for a few days, I've set up one of the canoes as a table to expand my office. The setup is great. I have a little three legged stool that's about the right height. The canoe bottom is slopped about right for the screen, but it's a little too tall for comfort. I may have a few complaints about the furniture in my office, but I certainly can't complain about the view around me. Everywhere I look I can see animals. The lake is as calm as a mirror and a gentle breeze cools me as I type. I wonder if I can ask the boss to set me up like this when I get back to my day job?

The technology I've used on this trip has been great. The Kodak DC 280 zoom digital camera has produced great photos that were easy to transfer to the Macintosh Computer. The Mac PowerBook performed just like the Mac desktop computers I'm used to. The computer connected reliably with the satellite phone every time. Mitsubishi's OmniQuest phone from Glentel Satellite Communications, based in British Columbia, was a joy to use. There were no problems connecting to a satellite every time I needed to and the files for the trip report went to CANOE with no problems at my end.