In mid July of 2003, I did a 4 day solo trip to the Alpine lakes area around Lake Dorothy which was fraught with difficulty, mostly because I kept going too far and doing too much in each day. You know how it can go… you get to a lake quite a ways from camp and then it's only another 800 ft, or another mile, (or both) to get the next lake and on it goes.  I found some odd disappointments and a few nice surprises as well. Good adventure and good fishing in most of the 9 lakes I surveyed.
 
One of the most amazing coincidences and an entertaining story as well, evolves around a fairly inept chap named Pat.  It goes like this:
I arrived at the South end of Lake Dorothy around noon on Friday and saw no one at first. After setting up camp and chatting with two guys on their way out from Deer Lake where, they said, they saw a guy catch a fish. (I never got to try that lake because I ended up walking by it in the dark to get back to camp. But that's another story involving a lake too far and a leaky raft) But I digress...so anyway, I set out on Lake Dorothy in my Curtis raft on my way to find Lake Pugsley. As I rounded the peninsula/island from camp, off in the distance I see a guy walking around an island about 20' in diameter and notice a raft about 10 yards away. He gave no indication of distress except walking around in 20' circles and looking longingly at the other nearby islands and the far shore. As I got within shouting distance I inquired "Is your raft loose?” In an accent slightly Romanian he replied, "Well, yes it is, and I am wondering if I may ask a great favor of you?"
 
The raft was now about 50 yards from the island, fading in the breeze and I was still 20 yards away the other direction. With my task clearly at hand, I put some urgency into my paddling. As I passed Pat and his well circled plot of land I quickly jettisoned my pack and fishing rod and instructed him to catch a fish. There was NO time for idle chat as his raft was one of those big Sevelor two man inflatable rafts that was sailing away at a pace that was going to take a good chunk out of my afternoon. 

It was a race for the books; I, deep in my Curtis raft, paddling as fast as my little ping pong size paddles could go; And his big ol' Sevelor, riding high and light in the breeze; on a steady course for as far away as it could get. It wasn't long before I realized what you may already have thought of.   Yes, I should have given him my raft and sent him to paddling while I enjoyed the show and had some leisurely fishing. But noooo. Here I was with that dogged determination that only a Hi-Laker can muster to go just that much more and that much harder to finally reach the goal, in this case, of the capture of the escaping raft.
 
The relief of capture was short lived however. After dismantling his rope system so that I could tie his boat to mine I began to head back to "Island of the Inept". Now, I was little match against the breeze which seemed to simply swirl around me and vortex against the sides of his monster boat creating a mostly standstill tug of war with nature. Said Island was a heck of a long ways away yet shore was about 30 yards crosswind so off to shore I went where I switched rafts. Using his firmly mounted ores made to fit a Vikings ship I could make good progress at returning to the island.
 
Meanwhile, Pat had tired of faking fishing and was spending considerable leisure time sitting on his little island enjoying his little solitude and no doubt basking is his good fortune. His good fortune that I, the only person in the vicinity, had a boat and was out on the water at the exact same time he allowed his transportation to be removed from his control... Most amazing! Upon reaching the island I could now finally inquire as to "Why did you not go get your boat when it was still close?" (My voice outside my head was so much more polite and controlled than that voice inside.) He sheepishly replied that he could not swim very good and felt he could not catch up with his raft and had quickly turned back. Pressing on, I inquired as to what he would have done had I not come along at such an opportune time? He surmised he would swim from island to island and then more than 1/4 mile to shore. "I'll tell you what!!!" my mind screamed. "If you could not have swum the original 10 yards to get the boat then you'd be nothing but bloated body waste in my alpine lake if you'd tried to swim for shore!" But, alas, I simply commented that to get to shore was a long ways to swim even for one that was used to it.
 
Thinking about this...Had I been just 1 hour earlier I would have non-chalantly gone up to Lake Pugsley and come back out after catching and releasing all those little brookies to notice his raft up against the cliffs at the far end of the cove I was in.  Empty. NoBODY around.  Then what? Would I have spent the day searching for the dead guy who had fallen out of his raft? Cut my trip short to hike out and report a possible body or stranded person somewhere in or near the lake? Or commandeered the abandoned vessel on the high seas and claimed it as mine and lived the rest of my life wondering if its owner was dead or alive. I shudder at all of those possibilities.
 
As I was about to settle back into my raft and leave this person suffering from ineptitude alone, lest it become contagious, he told me he owed me a great dept. My mind raced. I looked at him. Looked at his empty raft, then his little pack that seemed to be nothing but an empty piece of cloth and back at him.  It was right then and there that I realized he had no beer to give me, so I told him I'd probably run out of anti-sunburn glop before my trip was over and if he had any to spare it would be appreciated. Well, wouldn't you know it...He had no such thing, but he did have something similar. It was a half full pump spray bottle of Hair and Scalp sun protection SPF 15. I'd never heard of such a thing. Have you ever heard of such a thing? Maybe Sandy or Bill has heard of such a thing, but I've never heard of such a thing. He did have a nice manicured head of hair and perhaps way down there in the middle of it he had a balding spot that needed protecting, along with that fine hair. Indeed such a fine head of hair for such a damned inept person to strand themselves in the middle of an almost deserted lake. I just wear a hat! Sorry. There I go again.
 
I took his half full bottle and off I went to continue my journey.  Content that I would be safe for the remainder of my trip for my good deed.  I was safe, but later became somewhat inept.  I knew I should not have shaken his hand….

– Don Wicklund