When Things Go Wrong
by William Llilly (continued from page 1)
Turns out we seen one canoe the whole week. Apparently everyone, but us, knew that it was too early to be out on the water. Who cares...we are wilderness masters. We will show all of the rest of the people how it is done.
Our first night at the campsite we had a wind storm that launched one canoe from shore into the lake. I lost my only baseball cap to the lake from the high winds. It was dark and we had to retrieve the "launched" canoe. This was our first sign of trouble.
The fishing was terrible. We did catch a few small Pike. These were so small that eliminating the bones would be a very tedious chore, to say the least.
The young guys were not easily discouraged though. We would find food!
Good thing we brought freeze dried food!
The next day all the young guys in the group set out to feed the group. We all came back with the same story. The fish would not cooperate. We tried everything! We would have to alter our tactics.
The older gentlemen in the group had caught four lake trout off the shore of our camp.( Had to be luck ) We threw everything but the life vests at the fish.
The next day brought rain that didn't stop. We tried everything to catch the lakers the older guys had caught the day before, to no avail. Even the older guys gave up! We had freeze dried food for dinner that night.
The wilderness was winning!
We played cards inside the tent that night for entertainment. We couldn't even keep a campfire going. The rain never stopped or let up. We were worried about our flashlight battery capabilties for the rest of the week at this point so we called it a night and crawled into our sleeping bags like a hunting dog just scolded. We had our tails between our legs!
The next day brought clear skies and a fresh attitude. We needed real food! The young masters of the wilderness would save the day! We would bring home plenty of fish to feed the group.
The older two in our group began their ritual of feeding us young bucks some sort of freeze dried paste for breakfast. Then they started to tend the camp chores as us "masters of the wilderness" began our journey to find us some real food.
The young bucks, in two seperate canoes, began the hunt for real food. Each of the canoes had a seperate plan. It was a secret though. We didn't want to reveal our best fishing locations. This was our "first" mistake of the day. There will be more!
While "Team Pike" was doing a quick search of the local waters "Team Bass" was being a bit more thorough. We were lagging behind because we didn't want to let "Team Pike" know our spots. This was a major mistake.
We should have combined both canoes as being "Team I don't want to starve"!
As "Team Pike" made their way down the lake we kind of meandered behind. We wanted the best waters to ouselves! We would prove that we were the best providers in our group.
As we rounded the corner of Knife Lake the waves looked very large. We knew we shouldn't try to enter the lake. The other guys that were about an hour ahead of us made it through OK though. We could do anything they could do!!
We turned our baseball caps backwards and started singing the song from Hawaii 5-0 as we headed into the choppy waters of Knife Lake. This is kind of a "group song" that we sing when we encounter high winds and we have to dig in with the paddles...... Dah dah dah dah dah.. dah.....Dah dah dah dah.. dahhhh.
Big mistake!!!!
About 150 yards offshore the wind switched from straight ahead to coming at us from the left. We didn't know what hit us! The waves came over the side of the canoe from the left like a car running a red light!
My partner and I are in the water 150 yards from shore! The lake just thawed 3 days ago!.....Not Good!!
It is amazing how fast the mind responds to emergency situations!
My partner asked me if I still had my cigarette lighter. I reached into the hip pocket of my military pants to discover that I did not have my lighter anymore. (Why didn't I put it in the button up pocket)? I, reluctuntly, told him no....I had lost it!
He, in return, told me he had lost his lighter too.
For just an instant I think.........Wow... we are in the water 150 yards from shore and John is asking me if I have my lighter. Then the startling truth sank in!
We are in serious danger of losing our lives right now!! Even if we manage to make it to shore we will die without a fire! It is only about 42 degrees and we are soaking wet.