July 27, 2009 -- At Leech Lake

2 Days and Counting...

At 9:00 a.m. the temperature was just a hair under 70 degrees, the sky was mostly sunny with several large, white billowy clouds here and there, and the wind was out of the WNW at 12-18 mph, with gusts up over 20 mph.

By 11:00 a.m., the lake was covered in white caps and I could see only one boat out on Sucker Bay. I did a quick check of the boat's license number by looking through the binoculars, and sure enough, they were from Illinois; FIB's. Obviously they are up here on vacation and will go out fishing regardless of the wind conditions.

I had a business call that kept me busy until around noon, then I spent the next couple of hours cleaning -- bathrooms, washing sheets, making beds, cleaning up the kitchen, etc. I don't want to leave everything until tomorrow or early Wednesday. I'd like to get as much cleaned up today as possible so I have some time to fish and enjoy the lake before my departure.

The entire day ended up being very windy; too windy to go fishing today. So instead I decided to go for a walk on our dirt road. I got as far as Norm's when swarms of horse flies, the biting kind, descended on me.

I had to swat at flies and wave my hands over my head all the way home just to keep from being bit. I must have looked like a lunatic waving my arms over my head as I trotted home. There is always a bug-related adventure in the northwoods during the summer.

When I got home I got out the ATV and went for another ride. I like to see the peninsula and on the ATV I’m able to move fast enough to where the flies and mosquitoes can’t bother me.

At 9:00 p.m. it was still very windy, and it started to lightly rain, so I didn’t go out trolling for walleye tonight. Instead I stayed in and enjoyed listening to music from my vast vinyl LP collection. A pleasant evening on the shores of Leech Lake.