Week 5 seemed to go very fast for us, probably because it
was the first time we took our full two days off (plus a late start on
Wednesday because of the dog sledding tour).
The highlight of this week was beginning work on the Butterfly Lake Boat
Launch area. Friday, a plane flew our
supplies into our lake, unfortunately the process did not go as easily as Vic
and we initially anticipated; the pilot was grumpy, not all the supplies fit on
the plane, and our supplies were offloaded across the cove from where we really
wanted to off load them. It took a bit of work, and a few canoe trips
to move our supplies from the soggy shore, into our boat, paddle across the
cove, offload them onto a barge, then carry them to our storage area.
Since all the supplies did not make it on the plane, we hiked to the 2 miles to where Vic was parked with the truck and remaining supplies. Dave grabbed a coconut hair core log, Alex a wheel barrel full of geogrid, Vic strapped a few pieces of geogrid to his pack, and off we all went down the muddy, rutty, former ATV trail for about 2 miles. It was an interesting walk, but now we had most of what we needed at the work site; the remaining core logs and miscellaneous tools would wait until needed. Together, we mapped out the final plan for the boat launch area and talked over details before Vic hiked out for the evening.
We ate dinner, then spent the evening boating around the lake with one of the private property owners we had run into earlier in the day, hearing about the animal hotspots, and local info about the lakes, and mauling the biggest bag of Doritos we had ever seen... it was from Costco!
Saturday morning, we had breakfast and coffee before heading over to the boat launch area to begin work. We spent the morning digging stumps, roots, and rocks out of the ground, and clearing brush and trees after Vic arrived with a chainsaw. By the end of the day we had accomplished clearing most of the area, beginning to grade the ground, and installing one of the core logs to help prevent erosion of the ground where the boats will enter and exit the lake. The goal of this project is to get all the boats stored on land in order to help protect the shoreline fish habitats.
Our paddle out on Sunday went quickly...with no rain for a change! Just as Alex was about to comment on not seeing any big wildlife this week, we saw a bull moose on the twisty shore of Jackknife Lake.
