Chad's Adventure

We're actually having sunshine this week. To enjoy it, on Monday, Chad went on a boating trip on Tustumena Lake. Here is his story:

We unloaded the boat into the lake, and headed out. Tustumena Lake is about thirty miles long. We have to paddle past Caribou Island before we can start the engine, because the lake is so shallow there. Then we started the engine and went to Clear Creek. We parked about a quarter mile from there and ate lunch - boating is exhausting.

We hiked into the woods along a river, then came to a clearing and walked to the edge of a plateau. We hiked from there to the glacier and did our gold-panning. We didn't find any gold.

At the end of our hike, we tried to start the engine. "Tried" being the operative word. The engine didn't start. We paddled to a beach where we could spend the night. And there we slept - on the rocky beach - with nothing between us and the bears except for our sleeping bags. At five o'clock in the morning, Mr. Jones gave up trying to sleep and tried his boat engine again. It started up just fine. Because we were so cold and miserable, we made a beeline for home. I got my share of the great outdoors for a while.