Day 34: Lock Dam – zero day #2

Today, we are wind-bound and icy-rain-bound. After re-assessing our food supply situation, we’ve reduced our rations from 3 packets of oatmeal per day per person to just 1. Spirits are lower than usual. 

I stayed in the sleeping bag cocoon most of the day, only venturing out to help try to find dry wood for Ben to start a fire. I finished “Wild Seed” while Ben blasted through most of “Goodbye to a River.” Reluctantly, even John started reading the Octavia Butler novel when he made it to the end of his book, “Water and Sky.” We traded books, though John had stripped “Water and Sky” down to the final third of the book and had burned the first few hundred pages, so I was starting it most of the way through. 

In the early afternoon, Ben managed to get a decent blaze going despite the continuing downpour. While huddled around the fire, we began to hear voices down near the channel leading up to Chamberlain, and we soon saw a large group of drenched paddlers carrying four large canoes up to the dam. 

After unpacking their boats, several of the paddlers ventured over to our camp at the ranger station and joined us around the fire. We learned that they were a group of Boy Scout trip leaders who were training to be guides. They were in shockingly good spirits for being so cold and wet with no real place to dry out. 

The fire soon died out, as it was simply too soggy to be kept alive, and the Boy Scout leaders went back to their campsite. We’d really just like to be done at this point. We’re praying for minimal wind and for the rain to cease so that we can get off of these lakes and on to the Allagash before our food runs out. That seems like a lot to ask, though. 

Today's view from the porch

A fiery sunset after a day of cold rain

After dinner, while we waited anxiously for a weather update from the satellite phone, Ben noticed a streak of sunlight hitting the tops of the trees near the lake edge. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, and the sun had broken through the clouds for a moment! We rushed outside, and soon we could see a rainbow stretching across the sky. Members of the Boy Scout group had also noticed the break in the weather, and we all stood and watched the sun set as we looked across toward the end of the lake, grateful for a break in what seemed like a never-ending rain storm. ​

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