Seven Years

These pictures are from our trip to Ross Lake. We went out the weekend after our anniversary We like to take a trip each year to celebrate one more year together, but this year two great friends were married during that weekend. Must be a good time to get married. Our first day at the lake was really relaxing. We canoed just 5 miles to an island with the wind in our favor. We set up camp and had lunch. Later we did a little canoe to collect fire wood. We had been asked not to gather wood on the island. The rest of the night we basically just chilled by the fire. Another couple was camping on the island as well, so they came over to our fire for a while.
The next day was not so relaxing. We canoes up the lake a few miles with the wind again. We then took a short hike in an old growth area. Before heading out we had our lunch, which was a smart move because our nice little canoe was about to end. The peaceful wind that had been to our backs was now a powerful beast making it extremely difficult to make any progress. At one point Kevin noticed I had been watching the side to see if were making any progress. I was measuring our distance by different logs and rocks along the shore that were not very far apart. Thankfully, there were areas protected by the wind, so we could periodically take a much needed break before we hit it again. We were very glad to make it back to the lodge. Oh, but the journey doesn't end there. We still had a mile hike out of the valley that we were not looking forward to. We had packed like canoe campers not backpackers, but it was just a mile (up) and we survived tired but satisfied. We learned when we were back at the lodge that another couple had to be rescued from the same place we had canoed from after lunch because they couldn't handle the wind. So pretty much we rock!