Poolside Ch. 05 Pt. 2

"Just then, the dog's big, black head came up out the hole in the ice, opened its mouth just full of teeth and gasped in a breath of air. The young guy thought some lake monster was after him. And he yelled at it to stay back as he backed right through the Styrofoam wall of his ice hut. That's where the old guy found him.

"It took both of them to get the dog pulled back up through the hole and out. But the dog didn't seem to be any worse for wear!"

I said, "I can't decide myself, T-Kat, if I believe it or not. Ben said he believed the guy that told him about it." I was still chuckling after telling the story.

She was giggling as I was finishing and finally burst out laughing after I'd finished the story. I loved the sound of her being happy.

She laughed gaily and said, "I don't know, Don. That one sounds like a whopper to me. I don't know, I suppose something strange like that could have happened up here. We do seem to have left civilization behind us a little.

"It is just so beautiful, up here away from everything except nature. It's so quiet, with no cars, or planes or anything.

"The road ended at the lake. So, I guess that's the only way to leave this place."

I said, "That's right, T-Kat. The road we came in on is the only way in or out of here, for about twenty miles. But the lakes up here are fairly close together. Many of them have trails between them. That's about the only other way out of here, other than by pontoon seaplane, like the ones the Forest Service uses to look for fires.

"Katrina, one local sport up here is to get a canoe, load it with a couple of days' gear and go what's called 'portaging'. Carrying your canoe and supplies with you overland, getting to lakes and places there aren't even any trails into, other than the portages."

She asked, "Are we going to do that, Don? It sounds like fun. But I've never been in a canoe before. Have you?"

I told her, "T-Kat, one of the boys in my high school lived out of town, in the summers with his grandparents. They had a small farm with a pond. The only boat they had was a canoe. We paddled it around quite a bit. I think I can still handle one of those boats. So if you'd like to go on a portage, we certainly can."

She said, "I think it would be fun. This whole nature thing is new to me. I haven't ever been camping before.

"Once I began swimming, it kind of took over my life. I need to have some of the experiences I've missed, like this one." She smiled happily.

"Okay, T-Kat." I said, "We can check over at the resort about canoe rentals. And try to get a weather forecast, too, since it would be nicer if it doesn't rain the whole time we're out there."

She smiled and said, "Don, I think I'd just love standing naked in the rain. Outside, where nobody else could see me, except you. And if the rain was warm." She laughed softly.

I laughed with her and said, "And I'd love watching. I think it would be worth a wet sleeping bag, just to see you. But we'll be better off if it stays fairly dry. We're both beginners at some of this stuff, like cooking outdoors."

She said, "Hey, I may be just a swimmer, Don. But my mom taught me how to cook, long before I left home. Heart. Mind. Stomach. That gets you the man you want to keep.' She drilled into me."

Katrina looked at me, grinned and said, "It's working!" And we both laughed.

I grinned and said, "Okay. T-Kat. I guess you have just qualified as chief cook. Step three of your plan, I think. We've eaten out mostly at home after workouts. I'll have to see what you can really do. In addition, I think that makes me chief bottle washer."

She giggled and said, "You don't have to do dishes, Don. I can do all that. It's sort of a woman's job anyway. At least that's what my mom taught me."

I replied seriously, "Nope. Katrina. In this family, we are going to be equals. I don't mind doing dishes. I've done them for myself for years. I can even cook a little bit.

"I'd like to think of our marriage and life as a partnership. And live it that way, too!"

She said musingly, "Mom said I got the right guy. Keep it up! You could be rewarded! Well, I guess keeping it up is a reward for me, too!" I grinned and she giggled.

I slowed the boat as I studied the map I'd been given. I determined which of the four docks I could see, we were supposed to land our boat at.

We clipped the boat to eye-bolts in the dock with ropes and hooks already attached to the boat. Then, we unloaded the boat and made several trips carrying our gear up a short trail to the front deck of a nice little cabin. It was sitting in a small clearing in the woods.

We were about a hundred feet from the shore and only a few feet above lake level. Rocks stuck up all over the place. The cabin sat mostly on rock. Not little rocks, the whole area was one great big rock. The little rocks just filled in spaces where the solid stuff was broken up a little.

There were trees and smaller brush everywhere we looked. It was a much denser forest than I had ever been in before. We could barely see the lake, only this short distance from the shore. We couldn't see the boat at all since the trail bent slightly to our right near the shore.

We unlocked the place, which had its name, 'Wit's End', carved into a sign hanging above the front door. I pointed to the sign and said, "T-Kat, note where we're at. You can tell all your friends back home that you've been there with me."

She laughed as I opened the door. We looked inside and I propped the screen door open.

As Katrina was looking inside, I reached down and quickly picked her up by her knees and shoulders. She gasped as I swept her off of her feet. Then, she relaxed and smiled.

She kissed me and said, "Thank you, Don, for remembering the old custom. I forgot last night at home. Something else must have been on my mind at the time."

I carried her across the threshold and on inside. I set her down inside and kissed her quickly.

"Why don't we air the place out?" I asked her.

The place smelled musty. It had been used earlier in the summer. And it was scheduled to be used again, during the fall hunting season.

The lease fees helped pay off the mortgage on the property. So, everybody got a good deal. The cabin was much cheaper, for a couple of weeks, than renting a cabin at the resort across the lake. The resorts' cabins, however, had all the modern conveniences. Which we were to discover, we'd left at the far shore.

It was quite cool, almost cold, inside the cabin, though the temperature was in the mid-70's outside and felt very pleasant. It had been in the lower 90's the day before back home.

Seeing both a fireplace and a stove, and knowing the cabin was mostly used in the summertime, indicated it might get chilly at night up this far north. We were only two miles from the Canadian border.

We opened up the many windows in the cabin. There wasn't much wind, but a gentle breeze was blowing from the woods out toward the lake. With the back door open, there was plenty of ventilation to make the place comfortable fairly quickly.

When Katrina looked out the back door, she saw a very small cabin sitting on a rise, about one hundred feet back from our cabin, right at the edge of the cleared area. It had a well-defined and well-worn trail to it.

She asked, "What's with the little house on the hill out there? It looks well used, from the trail." She looked over and saw a small woodshed to her right then looked back toward the outhouse.

I smiled and told her, "It's well used, all right. You might have noticed that although this place does have a bathroom, there is no toilet in there."

She looked in the door of the little bathroom, and asked, "What the hell? Where's the toilet? There's no shower in here either, just a tub. Light, sink, mirror, towels and supplies for baths, but no pot! Okay, Don, you mean it's out there?"

I told her, "Right, T-Kat. It's in the little house on the hill. It's an outhouse, just like in the frontier days. And it looks like they built a nice little one. These folks use a privy to go in.

"Ben told me that it costs way too much to put in a complete septic system up here. You can't get any heavy equipment in to dig with. He said one guy he consulted wanted $17,000, just to bring a barge out and float a bulldozer and backhoe across the lake to dig one. The guy wanted to charge just as much more, for the septic tank and stuff.

"But for dishwater and brushing your teeth and an occasional bath, what they have works fine. And looking around out there, it doesn't look like it would be fun to dig by hand. Ben said he might have to though if he keeps leasing it out.

"He said the whole cabin is valued by the county at about what it would cost him to put in a complete system. So, he hasn't known quite what to do about it.

"But now he's started leasing it out to folks like us that he trusts not to mess anything up. He's trying to build a fund to finance it all. Note the little yellow warning sign, on the wall by the outside door." I pointed and grinned.

"Cute! Blasting zone - 100 feet!" She said giggling and then said merrily, "Don, if they had to walk through three feet of snow to pee, they might decide a septic system wasn't such a bad idea. However, they probably couldn't use it in the wintertime anyway. It would be hard to flush with ice!"

She grinned then looked at me shyly, and asked, "Would you walk out there with me, Don? I just want to look it over."

I asked humorously, "I take it this is one of those new experiences that you were talking to me about earlier, huh, T-Kat?" I grinned at her and patted her back.

She smiled and said, "Yeah, Don. But this one sort of took me by surprise!"

She stopped smiling and appeared to think, and said, "God! I just thought . . . What do you do at night?' Are there any wild animals running around loose up here? What's back behind that little house?" She didn't sound worried, only curious.

I laughed and told her, "One at a time, T-Kat! Anyway, behind the outhouse, there's nothing except forest, lakes, and it looks like a sizeable collection of rocks, all the way to Canada. Back about half a mile, there's supposed to be a trail that goes all the way around the lake and off to some remote lake way off in the woods. You have to hike up north a long way before there are any people. Canada has a big national forest right across the border from this one.

"I asked Ben about the animals, too. They're 'loose' all right. They live up here. We're just visiting. He gave me a fairly detailed description of some of the stuff that lives up here in the woods. He said the only animals we needed to be concerned about are the bears and the moose. And he said that the moose isn't dangerous, just nearsighted. But it could get aggressive during its mating season, which isn't right now.

"He said even seeing a moose or a bear was uncommon, especially in the late summer, when they have plenty of natural food to eat back in the woods."

She grinned and said, "Geez! A walk with the bears at midnight to pee! Thanks for the nature tour, Don! I think I might just try to hold out until morning."

I laughed. We walked out and looked inside the small, well-built little cabin. Inside the place was very clean.

I said, "At least it looks like it's nicely kept up. Look, there's a fan on that riser pipe that pulls air from underneath and keeps fresh air coming in the window and vent over the door. It smells clean in here. That little solar panel on the roof must charge this little battery, over here, and keep it running all the time.

"Ben said they put an enzyme hydrolyzer in the hole a couple of times each season, and there's nothing left but rocks by the next summer. This place is nice, for an outhouse. We should remember to leave the place as nice, or nicer than we found it, Katrina. Ben was sure nice to trust us, without knowing us very well, with such a nice little place up here."

She looked back at me from inside, and said, "Nicer and nicer all the time, Don. Looks like I got one to keep."

I grinned and said merrily, "In fishing parlance, that's what's known as a 'keeper'. You definitely fit that description, T-Kat!"

"Uh, huh. You, too, Don!" She said grinning and then said more seriously, "Well, if I have to go out here at night, Don, you are going along as an escort."

I laughed and said, "Okay, T-Kat. But first I'd try to see if I could help dehydrate you in other interesting ways."

She grinned and said, "And what might those ways be, my husband?" She raised her eyebrows.

I grinned back and said, "Wait and see, my wife!" I winked at her.

She smiled and looked back inside the outhouse, then turned back toward the cabin. She said, "Looks like no plumber has ever come near this place, Don."

I chuckled and said. "Yes, T-Kat. There's no pay'ns, with no drai'ns." I rhymed poorly and grinned.

She hit my shoulder and said, "That was pretty bad, Don. I think it's time to go unpack our stuff. Maybe, we can walk around a little first. I'm still buzzing from that long ride."

We walked around outside the cabin until we were back at the rear deck. Under the water tower, there was a small, white box. It had two metal-mesh reinforced hoses going to and from underneath the cabin, through small holes bored in the wall. A small, 20-pound propane tank sat in one corner of the back deck, under the water tower, attached to the white box. It was obviously the water heater unit that supplied the cabin. The water pump and pressure regulator must have been under the cabin somewhere.

I showed Katrina the small water heater unit. A garden-type water hose came out from under the cabin, through a small hole in the rock wall of the foundation. It went under the back deck, where we were standing. At the edge of the deck, the hose had an in-line shut-off valve on it. From there, the hose stretched up the wall, with just a shower nozzle on the end, pointed down. A small, thick rubber mat lay on the ground.

I said, "And this is where we shower, T-Kat! Ben said that they have a small, old, 55-gallon drum with holes punched in it, in the ground as a septic system. So, they don't want to flood it with shower and bath water. So, we take an outdoor shower!"

She looked it over grinning and said, "Just dandy! If I wasn't an exhibitionist before this little trip, I may be one when I'm done. Boy, Don! I've got a feeling I'll be taking really quick showers! I'll be buck naked, standing bare-ass out in the breeze. Out where anybody dropping by from anyplace can get an eye full. And the wind drying me as fast as that little shower head can keep me wet, I'll bet.

"At least the water will be warm . . . That should feel nice. I did think about standing around naked in the rain. Maybe, it won't be so bad after all.

"We can just look around before we start. You never know. The weird setting might be fun and lead to other things.

"Now, I really do want to try it. It's something new anyway." She smiled proudly at her logic.

I laughed, enjoying watching her process her thoughts as she spoke, and I said, "Katrina, you are always full of surprises for me. I think it's more that just my professional training that makes me love hearing how your mind works when you encounter new things." We hugged and kissed in a warm sunny spot.

We walked slowly, arm in arm, back around to the front of the cabin. We were just enjoying the sunshine that bathed us near the little cabin. There were so many trees around us. The sun had trouble getting through, except near the cabin's clearing.

There was so much underbrush, it would be hard traveling, though the ground was fairly level. This far north, the glaciers of the past had carved away all except the most recent sediments. In many places, the trees appeared to grow right out of solid rock. Katrina pointed to one of these, some kind of pine tree, about six inches in diameter and twenty feet tall.

She asked me, "Don, how can they grow like that? There's so little soil or anything, for the roots to grow into?"

I said thoughtfully, "I think it's because they've adapted to growing up here, Katrina. You can see the roots growing all across the surface. Which is why it's so hard to walk around up here and not trip. Instead of growing down, they seem to be growing sideways. And the ones that grow right out of the rocks seem to have broken the rock up. And I'll bet soil fell down into the cracks.

"But that's all just speculation. I didn't study very much biology or geology at school, though I had classes in both." We went back inside.

We started unpacking the gear we'd brought and opened most of the new camping gear I'd purchased. Most of the new stuff was for her since I already had some of my own. My roommates at college had taken me on several overnight camping trips. I'd purchased a sleeping bag, a cooking kit, utensils and a few other things. The rest of the gear I had was new.

I had a page of instructions I was to use to 'open' the cabin for use. The first thing on the list was starting the refrigerator. I'd never seen a gas refrigerator before, except in mobile homes, and they were much smaller. This was a full size unit. But the instructions were clear. It started up right away, once I remembered to open the gas cylinder that supplied the cabin.

I flipped on the four circuit breakers that supplied power to the cabins' lights and sockets. The power was 12 volts like a car's battery. The battery bank, in a small box outside on the back deck, was recharged by solar panels on the roof.

The circuit breakers and current and voltage regulator were in this back-pantry-like area along with the refrigerator. This was just outside the main cabin's back door. It kept the refrigerator's fumes from entering the cabin when the inner back door was closed at night. It was interesting, seeing the ways they'd figured out how to set all this stuff up, in the middle of nowhere.

Ben told me that his whole family had spent nearly 45 years coming up here each summer for a few weeks to build the place, and that his father had acquired the original lease, long ago.

They'd brought everything across the lake in their 16-foot boat, with its small nine and one-half horsepower motor. They even had to carry over the sand, for all the concrete and masonry cement, and the quartzite rocks they used for their fireplace.

But I told Katrina that even with all that work, Ben's dad's family and later Ben's family got to spend all their time with each other for several weeks every summer. And how many other families have that kind of bonding?

I explained all this to Katrina as I went through the checklist. Finally, everything was working the way it was supposed to. I still needed to pump water into the water tower, so we'd have fresh water.

First, I was supposed to drain what water was in the tank by opening the faucet on the outside of the cabin, which would drain most of the system. After it stopped flowing, I was to close the faucet and refill the tank. While it was filling, one of us had to climb a tall ladder that was leaning up against the tank. Then, add a very small amount of bleach to the tank.

We walked outside again and I followed the instructions. Then, I followed the water line down to the lake. I found the pump near the water. I could barely see the cabin from there. I had Katrina stand where she could see the translucent plastic water barrel, up on stilts at the back of the cabin that served as a water tower. The pump started right up, then died. I started it again, and it kept running this time.

Katrina climbed the ladder and added the chlorine to the tank. When she signaled me, I stopped the pump and walked back to the cabin.

I said, "Well, I looked and there's plenty of firewood, if we need it, already inside. Everything else is done for the day. So, how about heating up our meal, T-Kat? The one we planned for tonight. Then, we can eat and relax for the rest of the evening?