On June 1, Don drove north to Canada accompanied with Barbara Anderson and her boyfriend (now husband) Andrew Nickerson.
It was a nice cool day as we drove to Sidney, Montana to spend our first night. The next day was again cool and partly cloudy as we drove to Brabant, having no problems crossing the border. We were up by 7:30 AM and had breakfast in the restaurant and we on our way north by 8:45AM. It was another nice cool day and we arrived at the landing at 11 AM. There was very little wind and surprisingly few mosquitoes. The truck had been packed to achieve maximum capacity but this meant that all the small loose items had to be collected and bagged for portaging. This made the portage take a lot more time and we were not ready to leave until 6:33 PM. My GPS showed that our train of three boats was making 6.6 to 6.9 miles per hour and that got us to the island at 10:20PM. Gear most susceptible to damage by rain was moved to the cabin and the remaining “hard” stuff was left on the beach covered with tarps. Don got to bed at 11:45 PM.
It rained our first night but it was just cloudy when we got up at 6 AM. Don’s body seemed to have slept but his mine spent the night trying to organize and prioritize all the tasks that needed to be done. Hunger tends to make you favor those things that will provide a good meal. We started with cereal but planned to have a “real” breakfast later on in the morning when things were more organized. Good Luck!!
Eventually the crypt was emptied, with Barbara being the one to volunteer to lift all the containers up to the main floor. Eventually, the mountain off boxes, buckets and plastic storage cartons grew to the point that the floor disappeared and it was increasingly difficult to find a spot for the next container or to navigate about the cabin. The under cabinet hidden storage was also emptied.
Tools and building supplies were moved to the mudroom and it too soon became a hopeless jumble of boxes, cans, loose tools and supplies. By noon, enough food was arranged on the above counter shelf and under counter cabinets to attempt to prepare a decent breakfast. The pancakes were delicious, but of course, by that time any food prepared in any manner would have tasted great. Barbara had claimed that she normally ate more than Andrew. He disagreed. After that meal, where Andrew downed 4 large cakes and 4 eggs, Don had no doubt which one would consume the most food.
About 7PM Don tried to call Betty on the radiophone. Both channel 2 and 11 were busy, so Don waited and tried again and again to find an empty channel. He listened in a bit. “I will call you Monday, honey”, said the man. “I don’t think I can wait that long” responded the woman. The other channel was more mundane, “We had rain last night. The motor on the big boat won’t start and we are waiting for a new starter to be flown in.”. Later, both channels are “open” and I try channel 11. Press the “Transmit” button. Hold it down and count, one thousand one, one thousand two, one thousand three, one thousand four, one thousand five.. Release the button. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, click. “These damn operators never answer the phone when I try to make a call”, I complain. “Last year, we had the lake fill up with smoke one day, I became concerned and wanted to call Southend to talk with the Fire Control Officer to access the fire danger to my island. “The operators never would answer the phone that day, no matter how many times I tried, and I tried a lot. The system stops ringing the operator after 10 rings if no one pick up, so you then have to start the whole procedure over again. Considering the equipment problems we had that year, we couldn’t be sure the problem was the equipment no functioning properly or the operators just were not answering the phone. I never did get to make my emergency phone call that day, all I could do was hope that the smoke was from a distant fire and that it posed no threat to us.
The next day I acquired the operator right away. “Why were the phones not being answered yesterday?”, I inquired with a heavy sour note in my voice. “There was so much smoke in the area yesterday, that people were not answering their phones, so we stopped answering too”, she replied. You can only imagine what my response was.
Again I press the “Transmit” key, holding it down for the count to 5 seconds. Ring, ring, ring, ring, “Saktel Mobile Operator, this is Susan. How may I help you, over”. It was a very loud and crisp signal. “This is Kane Lake, JR3-3380. I would like to call the USA, area code 303-499-7753. The call is for Betty, please charge the mobile, over”, I said, using the prescribed format for making a phone call. “Thank you, I am ringing”, she said. Ring, ring, ring, ring, ring, click. “You have reached the home of Betty and Don Bunker. We are sorry we are unable to answer your call at this time. If you would like to leave a message, please do so after the tone. Pause. Tone, “Betty, this is Don. Sorry I missed you. We got to the island Thursday evening about 10:30. Everything is fine. The trip was perfect in every way. No problems. Please call the moms and let them know everyone is OK. I will call Saturday. I love you. Good Bye”, a said rather crestfallen that I didn’t get to talk directly with Betty.
Andrew got the aluminum extension ladder from under the cabin. It is a bit awkward to handle through the front door and around the turn into the front room through the mudroom and finding the right spot to angle it up through the log rafters. Andrew had no problem doing all this with his 23-year-old muscles. Barbara and Andrew had earlier today brought the 55-gallon stove and stove pipes up to the cabin from the lower cache. Now we had to get it properly installed. “Someone has numbered the pipes 1 – 7, how thoughtful” I joked. “Now I wonder if #1 is on the bottom or on the top?” The pipe adapter going through the roof required a female pipe to fit into it, as did the outlet from the stove. So it seemed logical that the shortened #7 pipe, with both ends being female, it most go on top. We assembled half the pipes and balanced them on the stove. A guide wire ring was loosely put around the top pipe. I fitted the remaining pipes together and attached the top to the male adapter at the roof. Andrew tilted the bottom stack off to one side as I did the bottom of the top stack. Eventually we were able to line them up and by straitening out the pipes to a vertical position, the last slip joint was made. The guide wires were attached to the anchor screws and the tall stovepipe assemble was quite acceptably vertical.
We had enough wood in the cabin left over from last year to get a welcome fire going. “You know Barbara, your expectation that this ex-scoutmaster will get the fire started with only one match puts an awful lot of pressure on me”. “You can do it Don, don’t you think so Andrew?” Andrew agrees. “You guys don’t understand the physiological damage that I could suffer if one match is not enough” I said as I continued spitting the wood into even smaller pieces. I knew this had to be a one-match fire.
