Boundary waters episode

Chapter 7, July 22, 1988

Jack and Gabe paddled the seventeen-foot, lightweight Jensen canoe through choppy waters across one of Insula's widest bays.  Kellan guided his sixteen foot kayak sporting a rod-holder on his right-front gunnel with no fishing pole attached.  He was out for a Sunday morning stroll he had said and  fishing was not part of his plan.  It was different for Gabe and Jack.  Heavy spinners trailed their canoe as they bobbed their way along. 

 The canoe and kayak paralleled each other as they traversed the bay and made their way to an inlet on the northeast section of the lake that would eventually take them to Alice Lake. 

As they reached the inlet, Gabe looked to the southwest.

“I hate to say it guys, but that looks like a storm coming and it’s not a pretty one.  I think we should paddle like crazy back for camp.  We could just make it, I think.” 

Jack and Kellan surveyed the sky, looked at each other questioningly, and then sighed.  They couldn’t see much happening where Gabe had looked, but had seen this from Gabe before.  He had an uncanny knack for reading the sky and being right on when it came time for predicting an “event”.  So, they put the pedal to the metal and hightailed it along the eastern shore back toward their camp.  

Sweat ran down his back as Jack put everything he could into his paddling effort in the front of the canoe.  The Hulas' had been brought up to make the one sitting at the front of the canoe the power paddler.  The occupant of the stern provided less power, but engaged in keeping the canoe on course through adept use of the longer paddle.  

Kellan thrived in situations where he could outshine his older brothers, but he had a difficult time keeping abreast of the lightweight canoe being powered by two men.  He had been a gymnast in high school and college, just missing out on qualifying for the Olympics his last year in college.  Still, his muscular body couldn't keep up with his brothers this time.

They rounded a point and now the two younger Hulas could see the gathering storm and hear the rumbling thunder.  Instinctively, all three put their shoulders harder into each paddle stroke, muscles burning and sweat dripping down their backs as they moved as swiftly as they could to the relative safety of their camp.  

Finally they raced around the last point and into the little bay where they had set up camp.  Low hanging, swirling clouds of green, brown, and yellow rushed towards them.  

"Move it!" Yelled Gabe as they paddled as hard as they could for the sand and gravel beach a hundred yards from their tents.  The wind hit them like a boxer as they jumped from their canoe and kayak and dragged them into the brush for protection.  Turning them over quickly, they huddled under the canoe, holding it down tightly as the wind tried to rip it away from them.  Rain pelted the canoe and them as it was blown sideways by the wind that must have hit seventy miles per hour.  The sound of the kayak being lifted and flung against a tree didn't escape their ears.

And then, just like that, it stopped.

Lifting the canoe over their heads and then turning it upright as they laid it down was surreal.  The wind and rain had vanished leaving water dripping from the nearby bushes and trees.  

Kellan didn’t want to look at his kayak.  The sound of it crunching into a rock or tree was still in his head and he was afraid to find out the extent of the damage.  

He didn’t spot it at first glance.  Walking several feet away from the canoe and turning his head, he spied it fifty feet away, mashed against a huge boulder.  He noticed the top of one of the side walls was bent inward, comforting him little, even though it looked like it was still seaworthy.

Kellan approached the kayak with Jack and Gabe following and grabbed the nearest side wall, lifting and pulling it away from the giant rock it had been slammed into.

After the kayak had been laid on the ground, Gabe walked over and looked at it.

“If it doesn’t leak, it looks useable.”  

Gabe grabbed the handle on the end of the kayak and dragged it to the beach, launching it into the now calm, little bay.  After some maneuvering he arranged his body into it and just sat, checking the bottom for leaks.  

Several minutes later, he called out, “Looks good, no leaks.”

Kellan breathed a sigh of relief as Gabe stepped out of the kayak and dragged it to shore.

“I think we were lucky,” Kellan said.

“No.  You were lucky,” said Gabe.  “We’d have left you here.  After all, it is your kayak.  But, seeing how you’re our brother and all, we’d come back for you sooner or later.”

“Gee, thanks, Bro.  You're a real human being.”

“Never claimed to be one of those.”

Jack jumped into the tit for tat, “We knew you were close, Gabe, but always a little suspect.”

After cleaning up the campsite, which had been littered with cooking utensils, forks, knives, and bowls, the Hula brothers took the food pack down from the tree it had been hung in and gorged themselves on cheese, bread, and summer sausage.