Triplogs / Triplog#36 / Days 3&4 / Days 5&6 / Days 7&8 / Day 9 / Days 10&11 / Days 12&13 / Days 14&15 / Days 16&17
Lake Opeongo(IN) - Merchant L - Big Trout L - Hogan L - Big Crow L- Lake Lavieille - Dickson L - Lake Opeongo(OUT)
Day 16 - Sat. September 23rd
Temperature Readings:
7:45am: 12°C
2pm: 18.1°C
9:30pm: 14.7°C
A chipmunk visits our campsite, looking for a handout
Puffball Mushrooms graced the forest floor,
as I explored the surrounding area
Another grey day, yet it was getting warmer. I rained during the night and after breakfast I went for a walk in the forest, looking for piano keys. It is an old story and one never knows. It rained pretty hard at one point and I abandoned my search after an hour, heading back to camp to dry off and warm up. Before I returned to camp, I caught sight of a Pileated woodpecker, distracted now, I followed the huge woodpecker through the forest. It was alot of fun, and I tried without success to photograph the fellow. Every time I was just about in range with my zoom lens, the woodpecker would fly off. This cat and mouse game lasted for almost an hour. I gave up, this time returning to camp for good.
Lovely shades of green and yellows as
I walked through the forest
Some of the old growth Red Pines of Dickson Lake
By 2:30pm, the sky began to break up, blue sky could be seen. It was turning out to be a beautiful afternoon, it was almost 20°C. Joan and I decided to go for a paddle. Finally, a chance for a leisurely afternoon of paddling and exploring. We scooted over to the island campsite, with the nice beach there on the north shoreline, we both took the opportunity to do some bathing. The water was quite cold and Joan mentioned that I scream like a girl. Hey, it was cold down there! Afterwards, we paddled up to another campsite on the east shore. Upon arrival, we could see that the campsite had suffered from the violent storms. There were several downed trees, some in the the main fire-pit area. The campsite was a virtual obstacle course of fallen trees and tree limbs. The campsite also had a unique feature, a long dead hollowed out pine tree. It was massive, both Joan and I took turns standing inside of it, really cool. We headed back to camp, it had been good to get out and explore. It was a warm night, and we had another great fire.
Joan stand 'inside' a hollowed out pine tree
Mark stands 'inside' the hollowed-out pine tree
Day 17 - Sun. September 24th
Temperature Readings:
8:30am Guesstimate: Over 15°C? Thermometer malfunction
2pm: 9.1°C Thermometer fixed
4pm: 8.9°C
6:30pm 8°C
8:40pm: 6.4°C
Shortly after 8am, I awoke to the sound of rain, and high winds. It had rained quite a bit early in the morning, however, we slept through most of it. At 8:25am, I heard wood cracking then a loud crash followed. I scrambled out of the tent. Not 30m away, past the kitchen a large tree had fallen over. I also noticed that it was warm out, very warm. I checked the thermometer, it was not working, it had become soaked hanging on a tree during the rainy night. I guess the temperature was at least 15°C, probably much higher. I went over to investigate the fallen tree. It was a pine. Walking back to the tent, it started to rain again, when a huge wind began to blow through camp, a sort of high whistling sound accompanied the wind. I heard a loud crack and looked up. Up there among the tree-tops, the wind was blowing so hard, the rain was blown into a white mist, the tree tops bending sharply. I had never seen rain turn white before, before I could think more about this, another loud crack resounded, followed by the whine of bending timber. I watched a large Hemlock tree start to fall directly towards me! I could see the top of the tree falling before me, so I knew that it wasn't going to fall on top of me. Nevertheless I backed up, and jumped when the tree finally crashed to the ground, landing 5 meters from the tent. I ran over to the tent, I yelled at Joan to get out of the tent immediately. Joan replied that she was working on it and heard the tree fall. What was the delay? Come on Joan, get out now! "I'm putting my socks on", Joan said. "Forget the socks, you'll die!" Another tree fell, this one far away back in the forest, yet the trees around us continued to dance their frantic rhythm.
The picture might not look like much,
but the whitecaps were racing down the lake
Afterwards, it was as if the storm never happened,
the morning turned beautiful
Finally Joan got out of the tent. She looked around and up at the trees in concern. We've got to get out of here, I suggested. Joan recommended we go down to the shore. This sounded like a good idea. Most of the trees there were young, and less prone to the wind that was blowing through the camp. Down on shore, the lake was doing crazy things. High winds and whitecaps galore were coming down the lake from the north end. Coming out of the bay(where the Dickson-Bonfield portage was located), were more winds and whitecaps. Both Joan and I stared in awe, like frightened children, we cowered onshore, everywhere we looked, we saw the raw power of mother nature at work. We were also at the apex where the two opposing winds on the lake met.
Some trees (around camp) that were felled by the storm that morning
The tree that fell short of our tent
Perspective Shot: Showing over 6 feet in height
where the tree trunk split
Out on the water, vortexes kept forming and collapsing as they formed. It looked like a waterspout was trying to form. I had never seen this before, and stood there, fascinated. After about 25 minutes, it was all over, the sky cleared up, and it was as if nothing happened. The temperature dropped throughout the day, as both Joan and I hung around camp. I walked around and examined the fallen trees. The one that had fallen near the tent, also now blocked access to the thunder-box. The tree was very large, and soon I began collecting firewood, many dead tree limbs were scattered about. We had another great fire that night, courtesy of mother nature's fury.
This top of this tree crashed less than 20 feet from our tent.