Rescue At Hula - Part 3 - Wet Motorola

The wind was tearing in from the northwest and so was the rain and snow.  Northwest winds on  Wood Lake always are more brutal than others because of the long, open run it has on the shallow lake.  They pile up and whitecap and because of the lake’s layout, they hit the direct broadside of the canoe with every single roller.  In order to avoid swamping requires planning your route on the fly and rolling with the rollers.  Fortunately, we were not heavily loaded and floating high, so I just charged us out into the lake and kept an eye trying to move the canoe quickly as whitecaps would try their best to break over the port side of the canoe. A few of them got me, but I beat a bunch of them.

Straight ahead, at the first campsite on Wood Lake, were lights!  My gloom and doom began to break.  I  yelled to Nick about the lights in the wind that carried my voice to the right while we headed northward.  He saw them, obviously, but I was so hopeful, I had to say something even though it was obvious.

We pressed on as I had a surge of adrenalin, wanting to know who those lights were so late at night in this northwest wind and snow.  We got closer to the more sheltered bay of that camp and there was our rental boat, but no canoe.   Trepidation started to climb inside of me again.  We got to shore, shined our lights and Ted came out of a tent clearly made for two.  Then a kind couple came out as well.  We said “hi” and asked Ted what was going on.

Ted gave the exact same story.  At about 6 PM, he lost track of these guys and didn’t know what to do. He crossed the Hula portage and yelled three different times, but to no avail. He finally came to this campsite that had the only other people on the lake.  These nice people shared their tiny tent with Ted to keep him out of the blowing snow and rain.  Ted was already pretty wet.

We had no choice but to press onward to the Hula portage.    We had to cover a quarter mile of water in probably the worst part of the lake for a northwest wind and I was not looking forward to it. It waited for us literally right around the point from that campsite.  Nick told Ted to stay put and that we were heading out.   Ted nodded looking bleak in the light of our yellow beamed flashlights because much time had already passed.  The sinking feeling in my stomach got a little heavier.

With my back to Nick, he grabbed the bow of the canoe to float and brace it for me to walk to the back.  As he bent over, I heard him yell “Arrgghh!!!” and he added a slew of cuss words behind it under his breath.  I turned quickly to see thinking he’d injured himself only to watch him plunge his arm into the water up to his shoulder and then pull it out just as fast.  I shined my light on what he was holding and it was his Motorola service radio  - our only contact with the outside world.

He shook it really hard and then called into Lake County Dispatch for a radio check.  The woman there responded in the dark and her voice was garbled but understandable.  I couldn’t believe that it worked! Neither could Nick!  It fell into 18” of water and was there for a millisecond.  Nick’s cat-like reflexes apparently beat the water seeping into the electronics and frying them.  Somebody was watching out for us that night.  Nick was amazed and said that’s why he liked Motorola.

We got in the canoe, headed northwest for a bit and and then turn and head northeast as we circumnavigated the shore.  We were sheltered by the point at the camp and the little bay there as well.  The wind on the outside made itself be known when we rounded the bend in the dark. It hit us both barrels.  Sheesh, it was rough!  The waves were about 3.5 feet high and cresting about 15-20- feet apart.  I was trying to keep us on level water  but the fast-moving waves careened underneath causing us to miss the water on an occasional paddle stroke.  I could hear Nick being lifted up and dropped in the bow and in between roars of wind, I yelled to Nick that I was glad it was nighttime and dark. I would have never done this had I been able see how rough it really was in daylight.  In daylight, we would have been waiting on shore right now.  To make matters worse, the rain was sideways and the snowflakes sticky. Being myopic requires my wearing glasses and they had so much water on them, Nick’s flashlight made me go blind with sparkling circles.  I couldn't see a thing.  Wiping off the water didn’t help.  I told Nick to turn off his light so I could take us to the outlaw portage on the north side of the narrows ahead by following at the trees.  Now, in total darkness with water pounding over the port gunwale of the canoe and me looking at the barely discernible tree line in the darkness,  I hoped that I was putting us far enough north on the passage to miss the reef.  It was early spring, and the water should be sufficiently high, but I didn’t want to test out the radio again.

by rolling the canoe on a rock in that black water of Wood Lake.