"Clean up time," said Tiffany when Bill had disappeared down the lake to his camp.
"I got the tent," said Susan. "You deal with the stuff out here.
The women turned to and in short order the bedding was hanging on a line in the morning sun and the tent floor was swept. Tiffany cleaned up around the fire pit and checked their food cache, then hoisted part of it into a nearby tree.
"You want to go exploring today?" asked Tiffany. "According to the map there's a whole other arm or bay off to the south there."
They packed a lunch, their camera and a fishing pole and set off in their canoe for a day of exploration. Two hours later, gliding down the eastern shore of the bay, they encountered a high stone cliff that had what looked like ancient paintings. Paddling closer, Tiffany maneuvered the canoe so Susan could get some closeup pictures. Then they drifted on.
Rounding the far edge of the cliff they found a continuation of the thick pine forest filling a gentle hill that sloped away toward the East. As they were moving past an area that had obviously burned a few years earlier, Susan hissed at Tiffany who was looking out at the lake.
"Sssst! Tif! Look at the deer!" A doe and two small fawns grazing in the sweet young grass of the burn swath looked up and froze at the sight of the canoe. Then, perhaps sensing the women were no threat, returned to their meal.
"I heard something," said Tiffany. She pointed ahead toward a point that entered the lake from the eastern shore. "Sounded like people." Sure enough, when they rounded the point, cautiously staying close to the shore, they saw a little way ahead two tents pitched side by side back from one of the rare sandy beaches. They looked like larger versions of the tent Tiffany and Susan were using. Resting quietly in their canoe, the women watched for a few minutes, unobserved by the folks at the camp site.
"I count two young men, a teen-aged boy, or maybe a woman, and two older men," said Tiffany finally. They have two canoes. She'd be using her binoculars to study the other party.
"If that's a woman, maybe it's a family of four and a friend," said Susan quietly. Emotionally she was still coming down from the previous night's lusty encounters with Bill and was looking forward to a quiet two more days with Tiffany before they had to head back to civilization.
Then the fish struck.
Susan had a shiny spinner attached to the line on her fishing pole and she'd been trailing a few yards of line in the water as they paddled along. The fish that attacked the spinner, charged immediately and fiercely for deeper water. The reel sang and the rod twanged. Susan nearly lost the whole rig overboard but just managed to grab the pole in time. She yanked the tip up and set a little drag. "Go after him, Tif," she whooped.
Tiffany dug in and sent their canoe out into the lake while Susan frantically reeled in line. After two more rushes and a couple of pauses, the canoe was just a few yards off the stranger's camp site. The adults stood at the edge of the water, calling out and encouraging the women in their struggle.
There came a great boiling of water and a huge dark shape rose from the depths of the lake and paused for a moment, then lunged down again. The reel screamed and Susan held on for dear life. "Did you see that thing?" Tiffany sounded totally in awe. "It's huge. Four feet long at least!"
Susan didn't reply, she had all she could do to keep from losing the big fish. For several moments the line from her rod ran almost straight down into the water. Then while she tried to slowly lift the beast to the surface by cranking in line, the fish seemed to rise through the water right at her feet. Suddenly she was staring at an open mouth full of sharp teeth a mere two feet away. And over the greenish-yellow speckled snout, two staring eyes seemed to skewer her. The monster gave a shake of its head and thrashed its tail and with a mighty heave, snapped the fishing line and disappeared.
Susan sank back in her seat, sweat pouring off her body. "Wow, some fish. We don't have a net so there was no way we were gonna land that baby."
The three adults on the shore clapped and one of the men said, "Great fight. I think that calls for a shot of brandy, if you'd like to come ashore."
Tiffany decided by sending the canoe racing to the edge of the lake where one man, who introduced himself as Tim, gave Susan a hand out of the canoe. On shaky legs she scrambled onto the rocks and sank down. Tiffany came ashore and introduced herself. "And my intrepid fisherwoman here, is Susan. We're camped on an island around the point in the main part of the lake."
Tim and Greg introduced Katherine and the two teen-aged boys. "Pat and Mike are on their last summer outing before heading off back to college. We are on kind of a nostalgic trip. Kat—Katherine lost her husband a couple of years ago in the Middle East. We were all pretty close buddies for years. So Greg and I organized this trip. Kat's husband was kind of the leader of these expeditions we went on, over the years since college. The boys are nephews of mine."
The two nineteen-year-old boys were soon headed into the bush after locating a trail they'd seen on the map. With cell phones, they were able to keep in touch, so there were no worries if they decided to camp out overnight along the trail.
