march 08... last trip to duncan for the winter.

Rich, Sadie and I crossed Bearskin Lake at 4:30 pm. We traversed the portage to Duncan and made it to camp by 5:15. The snow was packed and crusted which made for very easy travel. Our first camp duty was putting up the giant tee pee. It took an hour to complete the task. It had been a long first day and we didn't start a fire to grill the steaks on. All the wood we left here 10 weeks ago was gone. This is a popular winter camping destination. Especially with the good ice fishing. We pan fried the porterhouse steaks on our backpacker stoves. After dishes we went to bed. The temps have been in the upper 20's and very pleasant to be outside. March is perfect winter camping month. At midnight i went outside and saw a fox in the moonlight. I yelled at it and it ran away not to return. I think it had been trying to get Sadie's dog food. Sadie never barked at it.
Slept late and had an excellent breakfast of fried donuts. Rich's recipe took Pillsbury biscuits and fried them in oil after poking a donut hole in them. When they were done we sprinkled Cinnamon and sugar on them. They tasted just like real donuts. They were especially good with Kenya AA coffee.
We fished for 2 hours without a fish. We did lose some bait to something swimming around down there. Which was encouraging but didn't stop us from going back to camp for snacks and coffee. Both of us had taken little naps while fishing and needed something to wake us up. At 4:30 Rich went back out to fish some more. I stayed in camp and wrote in my journal and read my book. For supper we made potatoe soup with onions and sausage. It was great and it was good we made a lot because Rich spilled 1/2 of it on the ground. I spent the evening reading my book. William Kent Kruger's " Thunder Bay" It is a murder mystery that takes place in northern Minnesota and Canada. At 10pm i went into the tee pee and read till midnight.
I continued reading in the morning and finished about 11am. We had lunch and packed up. It took almost an hour to take the tee pee down. The walk out was smooth and easy. We arrived at the trailhead at 3pm.