The weather cleared up quite a bit a week later. I decided to sneak in another trial, an over-nighter this time, on a lake called "Big Lake" also in Wasilla. The Lake is about 8-miles north of those mountains. I brought full winter gear with me as I knew the temperatures at night were going to be below freezing. I also brought a great, big, juicy steak to cook on my cabin top, and my laptop so that I could watch a movie at night.

I've pushed away from the dock; I still have another half hour where I must operate the outboard at 3000 rpm or less. Gives me a chance to compare the local chart of Big Lake to the GPS unit. I still have not warmed up to the tarp and the walk-through cabin idea. You see, for cruising, I am going to have all kinds of gear inside, from a sleeping bag and pad, to all my food, fishing gear, and clothing. There's just not that much room to walk-through. Besides, I like the idea of greater structural strength with the passageway permanently covered over. Maybe you guys in the lower 48 can get away with an open boat, but this is Alaska....

Picking up speed moving away from the mountains, on plane at 11-mph. There are some islands to navigate around ahead, and then the lake should open up again as the second half of Big Lake.

You know its cold out if I am wearing double hats! Still...a fantastic experience. I am still trying to figure out why I am the only one out there, though. I have this whole lake to myself. C'mon guys, this lake ain't frozen over yet!

I have about a half-hour of light left as I near the north end of the lake. My goal was to find a nice cove, drop anchor, and get dinner started. But I got sidetracked.

I found this waterway at the extreme end of Big Lake that was actually a passage over to Mirror Lake, the next lake over. Let's go see what's over there.

Looks like Mirror Lake has a little better than an eighth of an inch coating of ice on it. Plywood boats are not known for their ice breaking abilities, so its time for me to turn around and get back over to Big Lake where the water is deeper and takes longer to freeze. I guess this answers my earlier question.

Kind of messed up the surface of the ice turning around, but I successfully retraced my route and found a good spot to anchor for the night.

Now here is where my well laid out plans fall apart. I am finally at anchor, the darkness of night surrounds me, and my dinner preparations are well underway. I go to light my propane stove so that I can cook that juicy steak that I have been waiting for all day, and I can't find my lighter. I brought three with me, but I left all of them back in the car. I had no intentions of going hungry the first time I ever camped on a boat, so I pulled up anchor, and prepared to make the four and a half mile trip back to my car-in the dark.

I had an additional problem. There were 18 islands between me and my car on this lake, and these were not lighted nor did I have lights on the boat (yet). There were a few cabins on shore in the distance with lights, but if you have ever been out in the woods at night without light, you just can't see anything. I was afraid that I would run into an island. Here's what I did: I picked out a light on a distant shore, and headed for it. I figured that if I could see the light, there were no islands in the way. When I got to that light, I would pick another further out, and then head for it. This is how I leap-frogged my way back to my car.

Dinner was quite enjoyable once I retrieved my lighter. I anchored about a half a mile from the dock I originally launched from. When I awoke the next morning, I found just over an inch of snow had fallen over my boat. I took this picture of just four of the eighteen islands the next day. Each has a summer cabin on it.

Once I was underway again, I circumnavigated the entire lake, went inside every bay, and circled each island. I think I spent about four hours racing around out there that morning.

This lake has probably over a hundred small cabins around it, and many, like this one, can accommodate seaplanes at their dock. Notice the windsock! I think it is for show only, as it would be in the way of any plane's wing that attempted to dock there.

I was at that part of the engine break in period where full-throttle operations were allowed for less than 5-minutes. Here, I am doing 25 miles-per-hour according to the GPS, at 5300 RPM. After a very short time at this speed, my engine reduced power quite suddenly on its own. I thought I had broken the engine, but no, this was just the "Over Revolution Caution System" at work. I just had to reduce power to idle, and then continue normally. This was my first clue that the stock propeller that came with the outboard did not have enough pitch for the weight my boat was running at. I will have to change the prop before I go out to Prince William Sound next summer.