Red Shirt Lake

Bryan and I went on a hiking/camping trip last weekend, out to Red Shirt Lake. The trail is about 3.5 miles long and is very well maintained. The bugs are horrible, though – I really do not like mosquitoes! Our packs were full, but not too heavy. Mine sat very well on my hips, but Bryan’s gave him fuss pretty much the whole way in.

The canoe we rented was waiting for us at trail’s end. We figured it was better to rent a used one than to try and carry our own the whole way. The key they gave us did not work at first, until we realized we were trying to unlock the wrong canoe. Once we got that all straightened out, we were good to go.

The cabin we rented is a Public Use Cabin (or PUC) of which there are at least 4 on the lake. We weren’t sure exactly where it was, so had to paddle around and search for it a bit – but we eventually found it and were quite pleased with the site.

It was old and very hard used, though, but still quite functional. The previous users had left it in a filthy mess, however, so I had to sweep it out before we could put our stuff in there. Really not cool, guys!

Bryan spent most of his time out in the lake fishing for pike. Apparently, there are some big ones in the lake, but he only caught the smaller ones. He had fun regardless!

There are lots of critters in and around the lake: we saw a moose, two swans, some grebes, and a huge loon.

I stayed at the cabin and read my book, wrote my letters, and just generally enjoyed my relaxing weekend. Bryan was very happy to discover the previous users had left behind a 6-pack of beer (which sort of made up for them leaving it in such a horrible mess) while I was overjoyed to discover they’d left two partially used citronella candles. We burned those the whole time we were there, which helped to keep the cabin livable without mosquitoes.

We gathered up deadfall and twigs so that we could have a fire each morning inside, to help take the edge off the chill when we got up. We had enough left over for a bonfire one evening, which is always nice. We did not have any marshmallows, though.

The paddle back to trail’s end was considerably shorter since we didn’t have to search for it. Such a beautiful lake – I really enjoyed it.

And as is usually the case, the hike back to the truck was a lot quicker as well. I’m not sure how that works since the mileage is the same. But soon enough we were back at the truck and headed home again.

One thing bad part of this trip was the fact that I did the whole thing with a broken toe! I really do not recommend this, by the way. It hurt! Like, a lot.