June 26, 2005 Masked Bay to Long Bay Day 118
It was blazing hot all day today! My feet burned standing in the cockpit even. Ryan cooked up some grits for breakfast and then we were off. A minus two tide revealed many uncharted rocks as we left the bay. Many giant anvil thunderheads developed all around the horizon, skyrocketing above even the tallest peaks in the distance. I haven’t seen a sky like that for quite awhile. Summer is really here in Alaska! We dropped the hook in Long Bay after our scorching boat ride. We truly are running very low on food now. Ryan and I ate hard-tack and water for lunch, then went for a great hike. A maintained trail (no bushwacking!!) led to Shrode Lake. Shrode Lake is the one I hiked to last month from another inlet. Last I saw it, it was frozen solid with 10 feet of snow on the ground and tons of bear tracks. Today there was no snow, warmish water and bear tracks in the mud. We waded out into a salmon river and stood in the cool water with the hot sun on our backs. It was excellent. The air smelled like Washington’s alpine areas, a sort of baking pine-needle smell. Tonight I beat Ryan in dominoes for the fourth day in a row! But we added up all of our games and he’s still way ahead in the long run. For awhile I had misplaced my swiss-army type knife that had the only can opener on the boat. Note to self and others: never open a can with tinsnips. There was great excitement when I found the knife and we tore into the can of baked beans we’d been wanting to eat. Ahh, the simple pleasures!
