Day 7: Windy Winnie

We woke up at 4:30 A.M. in order to try and beat the wind that was supposed to gradually pick up throughout the day.  Winnie is such a big lake that slight breezes can gain momentum as they sweep across and cause whitecaps by the time they hit the middle.  We were on the water by 5:20.  I wore my headlamp and turned it to flash red so that other boats could see us if there were any other boats on the water at this ungodly hour.  Although I did not yet wish to be awake and I knew the day would get a whole lot tougher and more stressful, it was very peaceful cruising along the shore of such a big lake.  There were no other boats in sight and a thick fog was rolling over the crystal clear water.  Our plan was to at least make it to Bena, eat breakfast, and see what the weather looked like from there. 
We made it to Bena extremely quick, stashed our canoe in some weeds on shore, and walked to breakfast at a nice little diner which had extraordinary coffee (it was almost definitely Folger's, but it really did taste amazing).  After eating and using the flusher toilets, a luxury at this point, we made our way back to the canoe.  The weather was still great so we pushed off for Tamarack point.  We hugged the shore not wanting to get stuck in 6 miles of open water if the wind were to pick up and made it to Tamarack by 1:00, much too early to set up camp.  We wanted to be done with Winnie today and get it over with. 
We rounded the point and started an open water cross to the portage just to the left of the dam.  As we paddled forward we could feel the wind slowly picking up and the waves slowly getting bigger.  We were aiming for the portage to the left of the dam, but the wind and waves were pushing us too far left.  About halfway across we accepted that all we could do was keep square to the waves coming from behind us and paddle wherever they pushed us.  If we were to try and turn right to where the portage was, we almost certainly would have been caught sideways in a trough and either taken on water or capsized.  Even though the waves were hitting our narrow side every once in awhile it did get very rocky.  My right hand wasn't feeling very strong so I had to stay on the left the entire time in order to feel confident I had control over the boat.  The wind would push us off kilter one way, then back the other, then back the original way so I was constantly throwing in wide sweeping strokes and J strokes in order to keep completely straight.  We even got surfed a couple of times.  A wave would come from behind us, pick us up, carry us forward for a few yards, and then drop us back in the trough behind it.  It would have been immensely fun if it weren't for the fact we were in the middle of a lake that still had snow/ice on some banks.
We finally made it to shore tired and mentally drained, but exuberant.  Winnie was almost defeated.  Now we just had to figure out where we were in relation to the dam so we could get to our campsite on the other side.  We beached the canoe and trudged up a steep hillside.  About 200 yards after the hill was a boat ramp.  The only probably was that it was still on the wrong side of the dam.  Looks like we'll be making two portages today rather than the one.  We made four trips a piece, put back in the water, and paddled about 300 hundred yards to the dam and what should have been our only portage.
Winnie was finished!
Sun burnt, exhausted, and a little bit frustrated, we debated weather or not to try and make it to the next free site about 5 miles away.  Nope, we were way too tired.  Also, it might be time for some luxury.  There was a lodge right across the dam and they looked like they had beer.  We set up camp, took a swig of our "Winnie Whiskey" which we bought just for this occasion on the first day of the trip, and headed over to the lodge.  We met Katie who just finished her sophomore year of college in the cities.  She poured us a beer and we entertained her.  I guess Anders mainly entertained her.  That guy can talk.  She then poured us another beer and another beer and another beer and probably a couple more beers.  Then we got a pizza.  It was frozen but it was delicious.  Katie even asked the owner if we could shower and do laundry the next day after she learned it had been a week since we showered.  She could probably smell us.  He obliged.  We finished up our last beers and made plans to come back the next day to get clean.