Mystery Lake- text version

My weekend this week was one day but I got off work on Sunday early and headed on to Ryley's boat with Ty and Jesse to a secret camping location.

It begins with a 5 mile boat ride into a Lemmings inlet. Anchoring the boat by the shore. Behind an unassuming log begins a trail created by a local artist named Mark Hobbs whose float house is mere seconds away. He has created an intricate trail with drift wood stairs, bog stepping stones and log bridges. After 30 minutes of uphill hiking you reach a secret scenic lake imbedded deep in the forest behind Lone Cone. The view is breathtaking. Besides Mr.Hobbs creative trail markings there is no other imprint of man. None at all. It is so isolated that I could not help but state out loud that the chances of us ever seeing this in our life time where miniuscle yet there we were at Mystery Lake.

The four amigos armed with a tent, some provisions, a marine corps knife, a machete, axe and 4 sleeping bags.

We had to clear our own campsite after climbing a rock face above the lake to a small clearing. There we macheted the skunk cabbage, ferns and horse tail weeds.

We climbed further up the rock and watched the sunset on the other side of Lone Cone with thick untampered jungle surrounding us. Not a sound other than the wind whirling in and out of the valley. Not a ripple in the giant lake.

I was taught how to yield an axe and cut up dead wood logs. Our fire was impressive.
Sapporos, Caribou, anarchy beer and southern comfort were our "provisions". We laughed,danced and sang under the stars.

In the morning Ty and Jesse woke up at dawn and went fishing for lake troat but lost our one lure, a buzz bomb.
At seven Ryley and I woke up to the fire still burning. We made a campfire breakfast fit for jungle kings.


Then it was decided we would all fulfill a dare instigated by moi to jump in the mystery lake. We did all together in our undies and it was warm. I stayed in the longest and was scared out by a giant evil eagle who swooped down to see what I was doing then perched on a tree and glared at me.

The Camping trip ended with a group nap in the tent with the rain guard taken off. We called it our sun room.

Stayed tuned for more camping stories.