James Lake Cabin

There are three types of fun:

        Type 1 Fun: it’s fun while it’s happening, and it’s fun to tell the story afterwards.

        Type 2 Fun: isn’t so fun while it’s happening, but it’s fun to tell the story afterwards.

        Type 3 Fun: just plain isn’t fun. It’s no fun while it’s happening, and we do not want to relive it afterwards by telling the story.

Our hiking trip a few weeks ago started out as a Type 1 Fun trip, but sadly progressed into the Type 2 Fun territory rather quickly – even at one point looking dangerously like Type 3 Fun.

We did the Canoe Trail out in the Nancy Lake Recreation Area: 3 days of hiking/paddling, starting at Tanaina Lake and ending at the Public Use Cabin on James Lake. I don’t have an exact mileage, but it was a good 3-4 hours to get from point A to point F – paddling the lakes and hauling all our gear AND the canoe across portages in between. 

Tanaina Lake was fairly large, and the portage was on the far side – so we got to enjoy the water for a good half hour at least. Bryan put a line in the water trailing behind us, just in case a pike happened by and got hungry. There were a few others on the lake with us, but not too crowded. The portage over to Milo’s Pond was the longest in length but we were still quite fresh and not yet worn out. The mosquitoes were HORRIBLE! I really HATE mosquitoes, and there were millions of them. And since we’re hauling all our gear, I didn’t have hands free to keep them off of my face.

Milo’s Pond is a tiny little thing. It took longer to get our gear there than it did to paddle across to the next portage. The weather could not have been nicer though, with clear blue skies and a light breeze now and then. I had on my fluorescent orange sun shirt and a wide-brimmed hat to keep from burning. The portage over to the next lake was just a short hop. I was actually able to make two trips, so didn’t load myself down on the first hop.

Little No Luck Lake was a small lake as well, although quite a bit bigger than the pond we’d just traversed. Again, Bryan had his line in the water trailing behind us, hoping for a pike or two – but no luck (pun intended). Thankfully the bugs were not out in the middle of the lake, so we had some respite from their incessant biting. Our next portage was again just a short hop up and over a tiny hill. This time, however, I managed to trip and fall – which is no fun when you’re carrying a 25 pound pack AND have your arms loaded  up with yet more gear. I landed with my head bouncing off a rock – so did not enjoy that at all. It took a while to breath that one off, let me tell you!

The next lake was Big No Luck Lake, and as it’s name implies was much bigger than the last two or three lakes. This gave us a bit of a longer break, both from the mosquitoes and from hauling gear. Bryan made me eat an energy bar to help my body cope with the bonk on the head, and I have to admit he was right. He also would not let me carry anything more than the paddles and our water bottles, so the portage to the next lake wasn’t quite so bad. The mosquitoes were worse, if that’s even possible, and the trails were quite overgrown with Devil’s club.

Chicken Lake was quite beautiful but the portage to the following lake was just around the corner (sorta) so we weren’t on it very long. The last portage of our trip was another long one, and I have to say was brutal. We had to deal with the heat, the mosquitoes, a rather steep incline and then the steep decline as well, AND we had to make several trips to haul all the gear & canoe across. Well, I should say HE had to make several trips – I was not doing well at all and could barely make just one trip. I was seriously wondering what the hell I was doing and just who’s idea was this whole trip anyway.

We finally made it to James Lake, though, and got to relax in the boat for a while before making it across to the cabin. Unfortunately, the trail leading up to the cabin is quite steep but at least this time half our gear stayed at the bottom with the canoe.  

The cabin itself is a nice one, with bunk beds (just wooden platforms to lay out your sleeping pads & bags on), a table, a cooking area, and a wood stove. The windows had screens so we could open them during the heat of the day, and the picnic table outside provided a nice spot to sit and recover form the trip while looking out over the fantastic view of the lake. It could definitely use some TLC, however, as the steps leading up to the cabin were in sad shape.

After a quick dinner, we both just crashed – him on the bottom bunk and me up on the top.

The next morning, after a quick bowl of oatmeal, Bryan headed off to fish for some pike while I got my letter writing out and got caught up on my correspondence. I read my book. I drank some tea. I napped. I played some cards. Basically, I just relaxed. The fishing was apparently successful – he told me he caught about 10 pike. He threw most of them back in the water but kept the biggest one to cook up for our dinner that night. It was VERY tasty!

The journey back to our truck in the Tanaina Lake Parking Lot was not nearly as dreadful as I feared it would be. The mosquitoes were still horrendous, and the trails were still overgrown with Devil’s Club – but we managed. We even got a surprise visit at Milo’s Pond = a yearling moose came to check us out. He was very interested in my fluorescent orange shirt and just could not figure out what that was.