Kaladar Jack Pine Barren Conservation Reserve Day Three (May 21)

It rained hard during the night:  an impressive thunderstorm that passed just to the north.  I woke to a heavy mist.

After breakfast, with the damp still clinging everywhere, I walked back along the trail looking for a way to the north side of the beaver pond.  No luck.  What I thought from my map were flattish rock barrens turned out, in fact, to be wetlands.  My map simply didn't have the vertical resolution to show anything but the most prominent ridges and valleys.  The ridges ran parallel to each other.  I could move along them easily.  But I had more trouble passing between them or traversing any breaks.  Wherever the rock dipped, the beavers had been active.  Beaver ponds trailed out into alder swamps thick with mosquitoes.

Finally, in late morning, I gave up.  I returned the bridge, filled my water bottles, washed some clothes and gave myself a bird bath.  Cleanliness felt good.  I was just putting my water bottles away in my pack, quietly bent over with my back to the creek, when a loud snort startled me.  I turned quickly, ready for anything:  a deer, a moose, a bear.  Instead, I saw a equally startled otter staring at me from twenty feet away in the creek.  Then, in a tumble and flash, a entire "romp" of otters scrambled out of the creek, up and over the beaver dam, and into the pond beyond:  seven of them in total.  Sleek and glistening, bounding and tumbling behind each other, they followed a short, but well-worn slide -- one that I'd attributed to beavers.  I rooted desperately for my camera, hoping to catch them before they'd swum too far from the pond.  Unfortunately, they had already moved off more than a hundred feet before I worked my way back to the pond.  Despite my best attempt to call them back in with grunts and coughs -- a tactic that I've used successfully before -- they chose to watch me from a safe distance.

By midday, the morning damp had lifted into an oppressive humidity.  After lunch, I lay down for a nap.  I woke to the sound of more rain and lingered in the tent until it ended about 3 PM.  After considering my options, I decided to walk into Kaladar to call Sue and let her know that I'd survived the previous night's storms.  It took an hour and half to get to town.  I ate supper at the local Subway, spoke with Sue, picked up a few treats, and then started back to camp.

The heavy rain began on the walk back:  a steady rain punctuated by rolling thundershowers.  It continued well into the night, long after I'd stripped out of my wet clothes and settled into my sleeping bag.