April 19

8C cloudy.
Played cards at the bowling club yesterday.

He waded out pushing the raft until the water was waist deep then he hoisted himself on board.

Standing up he stooped and picked up the long pole and started poling the raft across the narrow expanse of water to the other island.

The bottom shelved downwards very gradually and he was able to use his pole for almost a half hour before the water was too deep to pole with any force. He shipped the pole and taking up the oar he put it into the water at the ‘stern’ of the raft and using the old fisherman’s method of fanning and propelling without lifting the oar he continued to move the raft forward. After an hour on the oar he was well over half way across but the tide was now ebbing and he was being carried sideways by it as he moved ahead. Once he realized what was happening he altered his direction to angle across the tide flow and increased his speed quite dramatically. His biggest concern now was to make landfall before he crossed the end of the island.

The water stayed fairly deep until he was only a couple of hundred yards off shore and when he could use the pole once more he pushed straight into the beach.

The exertion and worry about getting to the island had drained his energy and once he had secured the raft he lay back and had a short rest. ‘Okay, I’m here, now what? Maybe I should have just gone after one my own deer. No this will be best. Gotta find a trail, find a hiding spot and wait. His mind ran on, one thought after another.

Hunger suddenly hit him and he took out half of his meager lunch and ate it.

A little later, much refreshed, Bob secured the raft to a sand embedded log and taking his pack and bow headed along the beach in the direction of his original intended landing spot.

It didn’t take long before he  found a game trail coming out onto the beach. He turned and followed it for a short distance but when he realized it wasn’t really well defined he retraced his steps to the beach.

He found three more similar trails in the next little while then he realized that they all appeared to enter the beach in a similar angle and then twice found tracks in sandy spots. The tracks for the most part were going in his direction of travel.