Dave is dwarfed beneath the massive eastern peak early on the morning of Day 5.
an abandoned and long-forgotten primitive campground that had ob- vious signs of fresh bear vandalism, and then quickly left, not wanting to meet the individuals responsible for the damage. We got back into our boats begin- ning to feel the miles paddled the last 2.5 days. Only now we were faced with the thing we had hoped to avoid; a ferocious and sustained headwind with another 6-7 miles ahead of us before getting to camp. Our initial camp was a no-go, so we paddled another several miles into the wind before finally settling on a place. In all, we paddled over 26-27 miles that day. We got to camp ex - hausted but for the first time had an abundance of dry firewood to build a large bonfire before heading to bed absolutely wiped out. >> Day 4: 23 miles Despite an overall good sleep, the
wind picked up again overnight and was ferocious once more. It was also our coldest morning to that point. We got up early to make sure that we could get on the water and underway as quickly as possible. We had an- other 20-plus miles to paddle on our fourth day in. We settled for a quick but calorie-dense breakfast, packed the boats and were on the water right after the sun came up. We were met with white caps and fog blowing around the lake. Our only solace was that it was a tailwind. As the day progressed, and we made our way north, the winds slow- ly died down and a high pressure system moved in. We finally stopped after about three hours of consis- tent paddling, realizing we had al- ready paddled over halfway through our mileage for the day. We chose a tiny, 10-foot diameter island with a single stump in the middle of it. Just enough to stretch our legs, grab a
wind that was supposed to be accom- panied with the cold and snow was instead replaced by big puffy post- storm clouds and bright sunshine lighting up the lake. We breathed a sigh of relief knowing that we may not have to backtrack two days to the truck. The morning paddle south was stunning with glass-like conditions on the water, big white puffy clouds and blue skies. To top it all off, the nights of near-freezing temperatures forced the deciduous trees to pop even more brilliantly with autumn color. By midday we could finally see the end of the lake. As we paddled far- ther south, the wind picked up quick- ly at our backs. The final couple of miles to the very southern end of the lake, and the mouth of the inflowing South Fork Flathead yielded some amazing downwind surfing on nice - ly formed wind waves. We stopped for a quick break at what looked like
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