eRes Course Resources

Mike was desperate to find some ranch land so he and his pregnant wife would have a place to raise their family. They had no money and had to find land to homestead, an increasingly difficult task. Mike was told that there was land available at a place called Grass Lake, six miles south of Kleena Kleene. He arranged with the manager of Nimpo Lake Lodge to act as our guide so we could hike in for a look. There was a trail part way so the trek could be done in a day. I joined the expedition because Mike and I were talking about going partners. The four of us, Mike's wife would not hear of staying behind, set off early, before dawn. It was still cold but the days had been above freezing for awhile. We made good progress until we ran out of trail and had to go overland. The country was very steep, filled with narrow ridges. The timber had blown down on the sides of many of the slopes. Crossing these windfalls was like navigating through a giant game of pickupsticks. It was slow and treacherous going and we were losing valuable time. Our guide got confused and got us lost for awhile. This took longer than it should have as he was unwilling to admit that he was lost. Just like a man! We came out after several hours of hard slogging on a small lake about halfamile wide. The lake lay directly in our path. Mike wanted to cross it, as did I. Our guide and Mike's wife were opposed, due to the weather conditions of the past few days. They thought that the ice might be getting rotten. Mike, mindful of the escaping daylight, dug his heels in and said he would go across, and when he reached the other side, we could follow. If this worked we would save hours of travel. I decided to cast my lot with Mike. We set out across the lake, Mike leading, me following eight to ten feet behind. We reached the half-way point without incident. Within a few yards from that point Mike went through the ice. As soon as I saw Mike go down I fell to the ice to distribute my weight more evenly. He sank out of sight for a moment and then reappeared. He was holding his rifle over his head as he surfaced. I slid forward toward him and grabbed the rifle as he held it out to me. I steadied him as he pulled himself out of the freezing water. We lay on the ice for a moment, wet and scared . We decided to return the way we had come, stepping in our own footsteps. We began the hike back. We could see our companions on the shore, Mike's wife looked terrified even at that distance. We had gone no more than fifty yards, picking our way slowly in our tracks, when Mike went through the ice again. We repeated the earlier procedure and again lay panting and freezing on the ice. We knew now that we were in real trouble. Going back was going to be as dangerous as going forward. Mike was an infuriating guy. He was prickly and stubborn, with a streak of mad courage stunning in its totality. Mike said,"We go on across, the way we intended. I lead, you pull me out." We told the others what we were doing and hollered for them to circle toward us on the other side. I followed that crazy sonofabitch across the now seemingly endless lake. I knew, every step of the way, that I would soon fall through and die, probably right after Mike. Mike went through the ice four more times before we reached the far shore. I never did. We sat on the lakeshore and waited for the others to come around. We now faced hours of walking to Grass Lake with Mike soaked and freezing and a long hike back around the lake. We finally picked our way to our destination and concluded that the area around the lake was either too swampy or steep for our needs. After tramping for more than half a day we spent less than five minutes looking at the lake. We turned back. By now, I had pulled a muscle in my groin, Mike was grey with cold and shaking uncontrollably, the guide was stubbornly positive though he knew we had lost confidence in him. Mikets wife, eight months pregnant, was alert and energetic. She did tear into us for being complete idiots bent on making her unborn child an orphan. She calmed down after awhile. We somehow managed to find our way back to the trail, Mike shaking, me limping, all of us out of our heads with fatigue, cold, and fear. We arrived at the lodge well after midnight, had one stiff whiskey, and went to bed. We were tired and sad, having found parts of ourselves that might better have been left unexplored.