Somehow I had ended up as the main cook for the trip. I didn't really mind, it got me out of the water gathering trips. Since we were sitting on the ocean, someone had to go fetch water every day. There was a creek about a mile away, by boat, of course, everything was by boat. While I chopped onions and peeled potatoes to prepare for our first real meal in two days, Paul and Warren went to get water. They beached the boat near the stream and made the first trek, each carrying two containers. Paul left his rifle in the boat since it was afternoon and they were making lots of noise walking and talking. They had discussed carrying a gun and decided against it, "We're making so much noise, there won't be anything around."
You guessed it, as they approached the stream, they came upon a nice sized black bear. He wasn't too disturbed and just wandered off into the woods. They made their way back to the boat to get the second set of containers and had the same discussion. "There's no way he'll still be around." I guess the lesson to be learned here is.. "Always carry a gun when you're hunting, you can't shoot a bear with no gun." The bear was still unconcerned as it ambled back into the woods and out of sight.
As Gary, Paul and Warren took care of the water purification process, pumping the stream water through a filter into a clean container, I finished up dinner. I fried everything, fried fish,fried clams,fried onions,fried potatoes, everything tastes good fried, probably even paper towels. Gary had cooked some moose meat in a cast iron skillet over a fire. We devoured everything, something about eating Cheerios, peanut butter and Oreo cookies for two days makes anything cooked taste great.
After dinner, Warren and I paid a visit to John. He had told us to come by if we needed anything, they had a phone we could use.As we pulled away from the beach, Paul called out to us, "If anyone pulls out a banjo, RUN!" Apparently, we all had the same thoughts, not really about John but his brother Jim, living alone up there in his private trailer. We got a big laugh out of Paul's comment.
We decided that Warren would call his wife and let her know that we had arrived safely and she would spread the word. No mention was made of our adventure thus far, you know how women are, they'd probably dream up all kinds of bad things that could happen. " Hi honey, we're at the cabin, having fun, met some people at a logging camp. Call Cindy and Robin, love you, goodbye." After all, we were using John's long distance, didn't want to run up his phone bill. We visited for a couple hours, finding out about life apart from others. The kids were home-schooled, groceries had to be flown in and doctor visits were not real convenient but the logging company paid for trips to town. The conversation was winding down and we were about ready to call it a night when John piped up, "Hey, do either of you guys play the guitar?"
Warren and I looked at each other and tried to stifle a huge laugh, it wasn't really a funny question save for Paul's parting shot.
We had consulted the tide charts before going to John's, we'd learned our lesson and didn't think we could push that heavy boat with just the two of us. It turned out that the tide was coming in so we ran the boat onto the beach as far as we could and took the anchor as far as we could inland, about 20 feet. "That ought to hold it."
As we rounded the bend, we could see the boat, but it was about fifty feet from shore. I guess we visited too long. We couldn't believe we'd done it again! Warren looked at me and I looked at him, stupid grins on both our faces, "What now?"
Never one to avoid answering questions, whether I know a good answer or not, I said "One of us is going to have to strip down and swim out to get the boat." Since I'd come up with this brilliant idea, Warren thought it only fitting that I carry it out.
I stripped down to my wool socks ( didn't want to cut my feet ) and waded into the chilly water carrying a long stick. When I got in to about chest level, I was able to reach the anchor rope with the stick and retrieve the boat. NEVER a dull moment!
After sharing the night's experiences with Paul and Gary and getting another big laugh, we turned in to get ready for another big hunt tomorrow.
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