Day 22

Up about 8:30 am.  Fried some eggs, bacon, and toast in the skillet.  I had just gotten a double perfectly done and ready to go when I knocked the whole pan off the stove.  It was a good morning for the dogs.  :)  The ranger had asked what we all did for jobs.  Then asked what the dogs did.  I told her they were our bear protection, mainly because they cleaned up our campsite really well!

He stole Emily's ball too!

We drove a ways down Bowman Lake Road to gather stove fuel and Joshua got firewood for a “whiteman” fire.  He’s been after Buddy to not be pulling on his leash all the time.  So he decided to put some of that to good use.  He taught him to “mush” and drug and really big stick out of the woods!  He was very careful to make a distinct difference between when it’s ok to pull and when it’s not.  

Next, I sat in the boat dock parking lot and wrote postcards while the guys took the canoe out onto the lake and down to Bowman Creek to fill a couple five gallon buckets with water for the filter and to boil for dish washing.   

Then came the big adventure of the day. 

We all piled in the canoe, with the dogs, and headed out onto Bowman Lake.  I got shotgun this time.  It was lovely!  And the dogs were much quieter.  Emily seemed to enjoy it most of the time … Buddy was still on edge.  The larch are getting more and more yellow.  The sun was setting and they were positively amazing!  

We pulled off on a little gravel bar to take a break and decide how far we wanted to go.

It's actually sparkly!

Ok, so it wasn't really that dark.  :)

Love shore lines.

Isn't that just the coolest!?!

When we got back to the launch around 6pm, a gentleman was pulling his kayak in about the same time.  From Vermont he said, but he has a place in Montana.  He’d set out around noon and paddled the 5 miles up the other end of the lake to fish a little for some trout.  It was sleeting, raining, and very windy up there.  

We had pasta and meat sauce for dinner with a spicy salad.  It was a mixed greens I’d gotten at Sundrop … some local farm … pretty tasty!  Joshua got his fire going using the coals from the gasification stove.  And boy, what a fire it was!  It was almost as good as a hot shower on a chilly night.  We baked some fuji apples in the dutch oven.  Jeremiah stuck a marshmallow in his and said it was the best thing ever!  

3,245 miles in.