Most definitely a mental game. You know once they start talking about the family it's a matter of time. I would love to camp and fish at that lake. Looks like the smallest fish you would catch would be 2ft long.
How did you get stranded for a day?
We were hunting caribou. Flew into Baker Lake, NU and took an 8 hour boat ride towards Chesterfield Inlet. Hunted for two days with minimal sightings. My co-worker and I decided that we should head further east (about 3 hour boat trip from camp) and walk some of the bigger hills, set-up and glass.
The plan came together as we spotted hundreds of good bulls about 2 miles from shore. The problem... it was late in the day so we decided to hike back to the boat and return early the following day. What none of us realized (and the guide got into a lot of trouble) was how severe the tide was. When we got back to the boat it was on its side about 300 yards from the water. We couldn't budge it.
We were way out of range for the radio, we had no food but there was plenty of fresh water in ponds all over the area. We were pretty sweated up as a result of all the hiking and I managed to find a single piece of wood along the shoreline. Just enough to give us some relief from the black flies and mosquitoes for 25-30 minutes.
I joked with the Inuit guide that I liked him better than I liked my co-worker, so I would eat him last. Needless to say, he didn't sleep a wink that night... neither did we. I don't think it dropped below freezing but we were very cold and tired.
At daylight we were able to get on the water but faced a torrent through some of the narrow straight as the tide fluctuated. Managed to get back to the main camp just before noon. They had called Search and Rescue about an hour earlier as nobody had a clue where we were.
We had a big meal and then went to bed for a few hours. Woke up to find the other hunters had shot a bunch of nice bulls from the herds we had found. I thought my co-worker was going to completely lose it. Two hunters also went home that day as they were a little freaked out.
All in all, it was one of the highlights of my hunting career... no kidding!
Cheers and Go Irish!!