25APRIL2010 - God did not smile on this trip today. Though I broke camp to sunshine and departing clouds, another bank of clouds was on it's way. Only half a mile from where I camped I pulled off and huddled beside the tipped canoe as wind and rain pelted the bottom of the canoe and the drip fell beyond my exposed side. The rain was off and on showers and after about an hour I pulled the canoe farther ashore, inverted it and assumed the siesta/meditation position. Eventually it got sunnier, though still windy ... ferociously windy. Through a combination of paddling and lining I advaced the canoe a total of two miles. At this point I had reached an unbelievably beautiful campsite, so once again the inverted canoe did it's duty. Though I dried them a bit by the fire, I had 4 wet shoes when I bedded down, but I was dry ... and at least one downpour of about 45 minutes hammered the area during the night.
What was so beautiful about the campsite? It was elevated 30 feet above the lake at the end of a pleasant, wide 100 yard inclined slope. Decades ago, when the lake was at full poo,l my bed area had been levelled by waves, and indeed an area 100 feet deep had been similarly levelled, resulted in a three sided, wind-sheltered, elevated site with lots of driftwood for a fire. In addition the substrate was small gravel, so overland water flow onto one's bedding was not possible. I could sit by the fire, dry my shoes, eat toastights and snuggle into a nice dry bed. It hardly gets any better than this. Well, except for the reality that I travelled only two miles today ...but that is a detail.
Today I saw Gese, Ducks and one Coyote, possibly the same coyote as yesterday. He looked at me sort of as in disbelief as if to say "Hunh? Did I not encounter yesterday?" Then he did the coyote thing and beat feet up the hill.
I am travelling the six-mile long N-S section of Ft Peck. It occurred to me that had I advanced farther yesterday, to the north end of this N-S section, today's NW wind could possibly have resulted in a 25 mile wind-boosted sprint to the next major turn north. there are enough big bays along both sides of the upcomoing E-W chute that I doubt I would progress far even with the wind (it is a very, very strong wind and advancing downwind with that type force is scary) but as one advances only two miles such thoughts seem to come to the fore. It is now 64 miles to the dam.