29th July, Raven Camp, SK

The lake behind the camp is very picturesque with “parkland” – areas of established trees with limited undergrowth with the exception of pale mosses. I wasn’t too keen on break dancing, so I asked if anyone was up for a walk around the lake. I filled my bag with bear spray and bear bangers and two geos, Heather and Christine, and I were off. It got a little swampy in places but I didn’t get my feet wet. The parkland was beautiful to walk through and then it stopped. The lake drained into a 150m wide swamp. We were over half way so we navigated through. When I stood in a hole above the knee, I realized that I wasn’t going to get out of this with dry feet. A few more steps and the other boot was wet. Oh well, I can soldier on now. The creek crossing was quite difficult. We traversed in water at around undie level. Not much fun. Once through the swamp, it got better and once again a glorious sun set with rays of light dazzling from the clouds. I won’t be walking around the lake again. My beard was given me the itches so I decided to trim it down to a goatie.