Rescue At Hula - Part 2 - Gotta Go Now

“You don’t know what?” I now lightly snarled because the clock is ticking and my happy-meter is running out of coins.  It’s been a really long day.

“Ve don’t know ver dey are.  Ted say on valkie-talkie dat Mikhail and Hrzckzc aren’t back from Hula” she said from her tear-soaked palms.

“When did you find out that there was a problem with Mikhail and Hrzckzc?” I asked now using my stern voice.

“About seex – theerty .  Ted call us and say that he’s at Hula Lake portage and they not show up.  He cross portage and not find them – three time.  Ted don’t know what to do and valkie-talkie iss dead.” she replied.

To that response I had a mini-meltdown.  “You waited 3.5 hours and never even thought to come look for help from anybody?  What is wrong with you people!!!!?????”  More sobs and I decide that this was a far as these women were going to take me in this problem.  I hit the door running, and headed to the resort office to get to the phone.

I called my dad  up at his house, and his first response was “Let’s go.  Let’s get some gear together”  I suggested we call the Lake County Sheriff to see if we can get some help there as well.  The dispatch said that Nick Milkovich was in the area and they would send him right over.  He arrived in his cruiser in under 10 minutes.

During the ten minutes I waited, I began to get gear together.  Flashlights, backup flash lights, matches, firestarters, a butane lighter, first-aid supplies, and a zip lock bag to contain it all. I also threw in about 6 cans of pop, some candy bars, life jackets,  beef jerky and whatever else could be accessed with ease out in the woods.  In my mind it is still a rescue mission, not a recovery.   Fighting back the abject panic that tries it’s hardest to set in during situations such as these sent my adrenalin surging.

Nick suggested quietly, before my dad made it down to the lodge building that he and I be the only ones to go on this mission.   He said, “you dad is getting too old for this shit” and I agreed. When my dad arrived, I said that Nick and I would be going and Nick suggested that he stay home and man the phone as we would need reliable phone contact.  This was the age before all the electronics of today.  Nick has his gun belt, department issued Motorola service radio and clothes on his back. I got him a rainsuit and took one #4 pack with all the stuff and some extra jackets.  I had my rain gear on and we threw paddles in back of the truck, along with the pack, grabbed the keys for the remaining canoe and blasted out of the yard.  Time was REALLY ticking fast now.

We arrived at the Wood Lake parking lot at about 10:40 PM.  It was cloudy, roaring wind in the trees and it felt extra dark outside.  We started down the portage walking with the sheer determination of  two guys on a serious mission.  It was snowing and down in the mud and swampy part of the portage where the old slippery corduroy logs were laid years before, it was deathly silent.  In between our footsteps, I could hear the snowflakes hit the wet leaves on the ground.  The wind was higher than in the tree tops and every now and then,  it would swoop down and blast us in the dark after aligning itself with the trail.  It was like a marauding monster that was gone as quickly as it attacked.  The wind was a harbinger of bad things in my mind as we used flashlights to avoid the deep black mud and walk on anything solid.

At about 11 PM, we made it to the end of the portage, unlocked the canoe and the darkness of the woods opened up to clouds back-lit by star light.  It was still really dark and I could just barely make out the treelines.  Nick removed his service belt and clipped it to the thwart of the old Grumman canoe – just in case. We both heard wind screaming over the muskeg.  The intermittent snow flurried into our faces.  I took the stern seat of the canoe because I know that lake like the back of my hand after having guided there for many years. That night, I was going to have to prove myself.

In order to get to the Wood Lake proper, there is a slow moving, lily-pad-laden, drainage that leads to the lake.  It’s about a three quarter mile of padde to get to the first bit of open water of Wood Lake.  Being spring, we did not have to contend with lily pads.  That area is a bit sheltered from the open wind and what looks like flat, calm water. It can lead to open expanses where raging waters await.  It’s deceiving, but it wasn't my first rodeo.  And “rodeo” it was when we made it to the first island at the beginning of Wood Lake.