The Once Over
It rains throughout the night and into the morning, but by the time I begin my portage to the lake the day is just cool and cloudy with a light breeze. I circle the south end of Portage Bay, the high water letting me paddle up next to the cattails where it is only 3 or 4 inches deep in winter. I decide positively that the brush pile that I've seen from a distance on the west shore might be a beaver lodge, maybe. That would be 8 lodges in the area, if it is so. It does have tracks on the side, but the branches on top of it don't quite look right. It may be a bank burrow that has become a lodge. In Union Bay, I head up the west side and find the rockpile nest attended, but both of the Broken Island nests are abandoned. I think that they have been raided as I remember that it should be a few more days before their eggs hatch. The rain has washed any yolk or egg white evidence away. Carp are spawning now and the water near the shore churns quite often as they splash and swirl. I ...