Taking leave

Tomorrow marks the end of our longest-ever continuous stay at Birch Lake, or anywhere in the north for that matter. When we used to vacation here at a rental cottage, we talked often about "sometime" staying two weeks. A one-week vacation just wasn't enough, especially when half the first day was consumed by grocery shopping and assorted errands, and the last full day, Friday, required packing so as to check out of the cottage on schedule at 9 a.m. A week really meant about five full days, and halfway through the week I began feeling blue about having to go home. The trouble was that getting away from my business for two weeks was difficult, and another week also meant $850 more in weekly rent.

So we got away from that $850 by spending a couple hundred thousand to build our own place (smart, huh?). And now we're wrapping up a stay of 15 days. The trick is that my job as a freelance writer is portable. Even up here in the sticks I have access to high-speed Internet; that and a computer and phone are about all I need to do my work. So we come up here and I work a regular schedule on weekdays, usually finding an hour for "opportunity fishing" toward sunset. During this stay I took a four-day weekend, so that made things a little more relaxed. An old friend and wife paid us a weekend visit; the following Saturday my entire family came in for a cookout.

Best of all, the Birch Lake gods turned the fishing switch to ON, after some very poor action all through July. While the walleyes were still not much in evidence (I caught two keepers, which we are holding in the freezer for a fish fry), the smallmouth action was furious. Twenty-inchers were almost routine.

Today, the day before departure, was beautifully overcast and calm, almost ideal fishing conditions. So I broke my highly focused work habits and went out for an hour at lunchtime. Parked above my favorite rock bar soaking sucker minnows, I caught (and released as always) three smallmouths from 16 to 19 inches. This evening I motored away once more to use up the last half-dozen minnows and finished by catching another 19-inch bass. Life is pretty good, I must say.

Tomorrow I work part of the day and then we take off for home in Manitowoc. I'm ready to get back into the routine, but I can't say I've had my fill of the north. How about you? What does it feel like to leave your Northwoods hideaway after a week, or two, or three, and get back to reality, whatever that means for you?