21 Day Canoe Trip to the "Little North"

21 Day Canoe Trip to the “Little North”

2009-12-27T16:39:00.002-08:00

Dates: August 16, 2009 to September 9, 2009

Paddlers: Chuck Ryan

Dave Phillips

Route:

Pashkokogan Lake
East Pashkokogan Lake
Unnamed
Greenbush Lake
Little Metig Lake
Metig Lake
Rockcliff Lake
Misehkow River
Albany River
Albany River / Mininiska Lake
Albany River / Petawanga Lake
Petawa Creek
Auger Lake

Quartz Lake
Vertente Bay (Attwood Lake / Attwood River)
Hurst Lake
Felsie Lake
Witchwood River

Witchwood Lake
Whiteclay Lake
Raymond River

Pickett Lake

Raymond River
North Annette Lake
South Annette Lake
Butland Lake
Cliff Lake
Bad Medicine Lake
Ratte Lake
Pikitigushi River

Gort Lake

Wash Lake

Derraugh Lake

Pikitigushi River

Pikitigushi Lake

Pikitigushi River

Travel Method: Souris River 18.5’ Quetico Canoe

Total Distance: 257.4 miles / 414.25 km

Total Travel Time: 166:01

Average Travel Time: 1.55 miles/hour ; 2.5 km/hour

Last year was my first time to the area of Wabakimi Provincial Park in Ontario, Canada. I went with three other guys that I met over the internet from one of the canoe forums. That trip was planned as a 14 day trip that ended up being one day longer because our flight out was delayed because of bad weather. These delays are to be expect if flying into or out of an area.

We had never paddled together before so it would be another experience.

A few times during this trip Dave Phillips and another member had mentioned they wanted to keep going further north, eventually paddling to Hudson Bay / James Bay. A couple of the rivers mentioned were the Albany River, which I have heard of before, and another one that I wasn’t familiar with, the Misehkow.

The area of Wabakimi is a boreal forest and a very unique area to paddle. The boreal forest is constantly changing.

Last year I got back into canoe racing which I enjoyed. Early in the season I planned what races I would do, and I was able to do the Wabakimi trip in 2008. This year I couldn’t get any commitments for any of the early races so I decided not to race. Instead, I decided to do a wilderness canoe trip to the Woodland Caribou Provincial Park in June.

In the spring of 2009 I hadn’t seen any postings of any trips that last years group were planning on doing. It was getting to the point where I almost expressed my interest in a couple of other trips. One trip was the Seal River.

Well, on 04-09-09, Dave Phillips posted that he was looking for some paddlers for an August trip. Here is part of his posting, “August 8th, 21 days, up to the Albany and back down the east side. Option to fly in, train in, paddle in. Four max, fit and experienced only. Swifts, lining, rugged portages including crossing the height of land and ass deep bogs. Great canoe country and lightly travelled. This trip is open for 4 weeks.”

I saw his posting later that day and expressed my interest. If the trip could start one week later it would would work out better for me because of my work schedule. I put in my request for the time off at work while the planning went forward.

I know Dave had posted this trip information on at least one other canoe site.

Well, the four weeks came to a close and there weren’t any other takers to do this trip. It was only going to be Dave and I. Dave had the route he wanted to do. He had been looking at this route for a couple years. There really isn’t all that much information on this route except for the Albany River. And what ever information available is sketchy at best.

This trip would take us to the Caribou Forest, Wabakimi Provincial Park, Albany River Provincial Park and the Ogoki Forest. All of this area is within the “Little North”. The “Little North” is an area north of Lake Superior and south of the Hudson Bay. The eastern boundary is James Bay and the western boundary is Lake Winnipeg. In the early days the fur traders called it, “Le Petit Nord”.

Last year we took the train out of Armstrong and got dropped off at Flindt Landing to begin our trip. We flew out of Whitewater Lake 15 days later. Now the train schedule for this year ran in the reverse so we decided to fly from Armstrong to Pashkokogan Lake, then paddled out to Boucher’s, The Bear Camp, along the Pikitigushi River. We would have Dave’s truck shuttled over to the Bear Camp before we arrived so we could leave on our own time.

Dave sent me the route information early on, but I didn’t have all the topo maps to really look at the route that closely. All I had at the time was the overview map of Wabakimi. I mentioned to Dave that I wanted to do more paddling than walking after looking at the route off this overview map.

On August 1, 2009 I posted on my CIIcanoe.com blog information about this trip.

Also, on myccr.com

and a thread on solotripping.com

These threads have some comments made about this trip from other people who have done portions or knew of someone who had done different portions of our planned route.

By the time I had posted the route information on my blog I had received the itinerary from Dave. I had some concerns about the time allotted for the trip. I felt the trip would be more enjoyable with a few extra days, but it appeared doable. It definitely wasn’t gong to be a leisurely trip through the bush.

Preliminary Information:

2009-12-27T16:39:00.001-08:00

We have all our own gear for these trips. The only thing we needed to rent was a satellite phone. I rented an Iridium satellite phone through Mobal. This was the second time I’ve rented from them. My earlier solo trip in June to the Woodland Caribou was the first time.

Dave would put together the food for the trip. Dave likes to eat well, so do I, but we have more variety when I travel with Dave. We also cook over wood fires, but we do bring some fuel when it’s not possible to cook with wood. When I travel solo I usually cook over a stove. This trip I would bring my Coleman Peak One for those times when we couldn’t cook over an open fire. Dave would also bring plenty of coffee after seeing how much I like my coffee after last years trip.

We would each bring our own MSR Hubba Hubba tent, 21” Corona Professional pruning saw, gravity water filter with one extra cartridge and our personal gear. Dave would bring his canoe, one paddle, axe, personal items and his two packs.

Besides my personal gear, I brought two Whiskeyjack wooden canoe paddles. I brought the “Whiskey Chaser” that I had from last year. This year I decided to buy another wood paddle so I would have two, one for a spare for either one of us. I bought the “Whiskey River” about one week before the trip. I brought my two Granite Gear portage packs, the Superior One and the Quetico. Last year I watched Pete carry one helleva large, oversized, heavy food pack across the portages. It was in my best interest and health not to carry such a heavy pack across any portage. This years portages were going to be more rugged and longer than anything we tackled last year. We were planning on doing double portages, but with 21 days of food I thought there was the real possibility we would end up triple portaging. I wouldn’t know until we started putting our gear together in Armstrong. Inside the packs I have an Ostrom’s water proof liner and I have two new Granite Gear AirVent Reduction pack liners to keep my gear dry. I also have a large, thick plastic bag that I use with one of the Granite Gear liners.

We would each drive to Armstrong, Ontario, Canada. Dave would be driving from the State of Virginia and I would drive from Champlin, Minnesota. We would spend the night at one of Mattice Lake Outfitter’s guest cabin before flying to Pashkokogan Lake.

Canoe travel would be through the boreal forest where the route could be passable one day and be completely blocked the next day. We had some limited information on different sections of this trip. The trip was planned as a 21 day trip with only one layover day to take in the numerous pictographs on Cliff Lake. This layover day would be on our 19th day. Known campsites were few and far between.

We would travel across big lakes, rivers, rapids, fast water, lining and tracking; and walk, crawl and cut our way across portages.

Travel Day: Friday, 08-14-09

2009-12-27T16:38:00.002-08:00

I woke up before my alarm this morning at 05:50 am. It seems like I do that often. The alarm went off ten minutes later. Once up I had my usual breakfast of oatmeal and coffee. It was a warm morning. Temperature was 70 degrees F. It was very calm and still outside.

When I left my driveway a couple minutes before 8 am the temperature had gone up to 77 degrees F. It was going to be a nice day for a drive to Thunder Bay where I would spent the night before driving to Armstrong tomorrow morning, but first to the Holiday gas station. Afterwards, I stopped at Walgreens for a couple items.

While traveling up 35W north of the Twin Cities I passed a van from Wilderness Inquiry.They had three canoes with them. Probably headed to the BWCA.

The road trip so far was uneventful. There was a fog over Lake Superior when I got to Duluth. The temperature was down to 70 degrees. I decided to stop at the Duluth Pack Store before continuing up the north shore. I didn’t stay long since I didn’t need anything.

Next stop up the road was in Two Harbor’s where I stopped at one of my favorite eating places...Subway! I ordered a 12” chicken sub. I ate half and put the other half in the cooler for later on. There was quite a bit of traffic in Two Harbors. The temperature here was down to 65 degrees.

Just north of Two Harbors I almost hit a deer.The deer was running from the right side of the roadway. I slammed on my brakes as the deer kept getting closer and closer. Finally at the last second with my Suburban slowed down sufficiently enough I swerved to the right just missing the rear end of the deer. That was close! I couldn’t have come any closer without actually hitting it.

It was now 1:15 pm when I decided to stop in at the US Forest Service office in Grand Marais. There are two people there that I know from when I worked for the US Forest Service out of Isabella, MN. Donna H. was off and Tom M. had pulled a Boundary Waters canoe permit and he was out paddling.

I talked to the two people behind the counter for a while. The guy told me he just moved to the area and it was his first year working for the Forest Service. The girl told me she was from the area and this was her third year. They both told me they liked what they were doing.

When I got close to the border I stopped at Ryden’s Border Store to get some gas. The owner is a friend of my father. I didn’t see Larry or his daughter Sam or her husband, Boomer, so I was back on the road heading for the border.

There was a line of vehicles at the border. I pulled behind the vehicle that was in front of me. It was 2:23 pm (Central) (3:23 pm Eastern). I got to the window just shy of 15 minutes of waiting. I was asked the same basic questions. Once I answered all the questions the guy handed me back my driver license and passport. Then he wished me a Happy Birthday! Yesterday was actually my birthday, but it was kind of him to mention it.

The further north I drove the temperature began to rise. I noticed it was 79 degrees about 19 miles north of the border then 82 degrees, then I stopped paying attention.

It was 4:30 pm (eastern) when I stopped at Ostrom’s to browse. Never did buy anything here either, but I picked up a free copy of the 2009 August/September issue of “Northern Wilds”. It’s a outdoor newspaper out of Grand Marais.

When I saw a sign for Tim Horton’s I had to stop. I picked up four muffins. Two blueberry and two fruit explosions. Why??? I had coffee in my thermos! I wasn’t hungry! Must be a habit to stop at Tim Horton’s when I’m in Canada.

I arrived at the Econolodge in Thunder Bay at 4:50 pm. When I told the clerk who I was, she said, Oh, this is for you! She handed me a note that was written 20 minutes earlier by Dave. The note said he was continuing on to Armstrong and he was going to stay at Wildwater’s B & B. He would see me at Elliott’s (Mattice Lake Outfitter’s) tomorrow.

I was all checked in and had my stuff in my room by 5 pm. Eventually, I turned on the TV and turned to the Canadian Weather Channel. I didn’t catch the weather lady’s name, but she kept saying that summer was finally here. Oh, I said to myself, it’s the middle of August.

Now there’s another lady, Nadine Powell, on the weather channel saying the same thing. Before I left Champlin I bought a heavy duty needle at Walgreens. I sewed a hole in one of my pockets while listening to Nadine Powell tell me about their summer here in Ontario.

This is the same motel where Pete and I stayed before our trip last year. Dick, the 4th paddler, stayed in another room here, also.

There was no Fox News on the TV so I watched the weather channel and parts of some other shows. Finally settling in to watch KARE 11 News out of Minneapolis. Well, TV was very boring, since I usually don’t watch that much TV.

Finally, I shut the TV off and did some reading at 10:45 pm. I’m not sure when I fell asleep, but at 11:50 pm I jumped out of bed after hearing a noise. I didn’t know what the noise was at first, but when I looked outside I saw fireworks shooting horizontally across my window behind my Suburban. There was someone who I couldn’t see very well down by one of the doors to the office of the motel shooting them off.

Went back to bed and about 10 minutes later the fireworks started up again. I looked out the window again to see if they were hitting my Suburban or not. It took some time for me to get back to sleep. While lying in bed I heard some talking and some footsteps in the parking lot.

Sometime during the night I heard, “it’s locked!” hopefully they were talking about some other vehicle and not mine. By the time I got up and looked out the window I didn’t see anyone.

In the morning at 04:30 am I heard thunder.

Another Travel Day: Saturday, 08-15-09

2009-12-27T16:38:00.001-08:00

Once again I was up before my 6 am alarm waiting for it to go off. Once it went off I turned it off. About 10 minutes later I heard the seagulls making loud noises while they were flying around the parking lot. I eventually got out of bed at 06:36 am. I wasn’t in a big hurry.

There was a coffee machine in the room so I made a small pot, but it looked awfully weak. Luckily, I still had some coffee in my thermos so I poured a cup from it.

Listening to the news this morning they were saying there were some large storms to the west last night. There was a chance of more severe storms in the area today and to the north of here.

I took a shower before checking out. There was a different lady behind the counter. She asked how my night was. I told her about the fireworks and that they kept me up awhile. She told me she asked the night person if anything happened over night and she wasn’t told about any fireworks. I told her they were coming from this area of the building.

There’s another Tim Horton’s up the road from the motel where we stopped last year prior to heading to Armstrong. I decided to stop and have my thermos filled with coffee. Next, I wanted to stop at a gas station before leaving Thunder Bay. I wanted to fill up my tank so I didn’t need to buy any gas in Armstrong. It’s about 150 miles between Thunder Bay and Armstrong without any gas stations or anything else as far as that goes. So that’s a 300 mile round trip.

The temperature was 67 degrees with a fog over the city. It appeared there had been a lot of rain last night with all the water standing on the road.

Well, I’m on the long stretch of road to Armstrong. I began driving the road to Armstrong, Hwy. 527, at 08:30 am. As I continued up the road the temperature slowly rose to 70 degrees. It looked like the sky was going to clear, then about 60 miles south of Armstrong the sky became foggy and gray. The temperature dropped to 59 degrees.

Finally, I pulled into the parking lot at Mattice Lake Outfitter’s at 11:20 am. It was 149 miles from the gas station where I stopped in the northern part of Thunder Bay to Mattice Lake.

There were some other vehicles in the parking lot where I parked. I saw Dave standing on the dock with some other people who were casting a line in the water. As soon as I got down there a young boy caught a walleye.

Dave and I exchanged our hellos before heading up to the office to see Yolanda. The weather wasn’t cooperating. The guys with the kid on the dock were supposed to fly to Whitewater Lake today, but with the strong NE wind there were 4 foot rollers coming over the dock at the outpost. No one was flying.

Yolanda told us everything was backed up. She suggested we go to lunch and come back later.

Dave and I went to E & J’s Cafe in Armstrong. There were a lot of people inside. Dave commented that this was the most people he has ever seen in the cafe. It must be because everyone else is grounded.

I only had a hamburger and fries.

We drove back to Mattice Lake Outfitter’s and spoke to Yolanda. She gave us our game plan, since they couldn’t fly any of their guest to any of their outpost.

Since the cabin that we were going to stay in tonight was still being used by the group that was down on the dock earlier and their other cabin was rented to a group of five that Mattice Lake Outfitter’s was going to set us up at Wildwater’s B & B.

We stayed at Wildwater’s last year and Dave spent last night there. Yolanda told us we couldn’t check in at Wildwater’s until 5 pm, so we could use their larger cabin to sort our gear until then.

Yolanda also told us that she was moving to Thunder Bay. She was leaving in a half hour. We both didn’t believe her when she said it, but she said she was leaving the business and she’s going to do some social work in Thunder Bay. She said her husband already had a job as a firefighter. This was unsuspected for us. I shook her hand and wished her good luck. Many of you know Yolanda and know how much of an integral part of the family business she was.

Dave and I headed to the cabin to sort our gear. My pack was pretty much ready to go, but I took some stuff out because it was way too heavy at 67 pounds.

There was a lady who was cleaning the cabin when we got there. She mentioned that she wasn’t aware that Yolanda was leaving until today, either.

Dave and I sorted through our 21 days worth of food. The original plan was to take one food pack and to put the remainder of the food in each of our personal packs. After throwing another 15 pounds in my pack I knew I didn’t want to take a chance in carrying it. That’s the reason I brought along my Granite Gear Quetico pack. Now with the extra bag I took some additional items such the stove, fuel and some smaller items from my other pack and placed them in this pack. My personal pack was now down to 57 pounds while the other ones were around 55 pounds.

We are using a 60 liter blue barrel as one of our food packs. I’ve never travel with a barrel before.

It was now a quarter to five and we were done sorting our gear. We walked back up to the office and spoke with Don Elliott. He showed us the weather radar on his computer. It showed a large storm over us and it extended all the way to Iowa.

Earlier he told us to check in around noon tomorrow, but now he changed it to 9 am. Henry, one of Don’s pilots, said last Saturday’s groups were finally flown in to their outpost destinations on Monday.

We drove over to Wildwater’s B & B and spoke to Bert and Brenda. We checked in and got our room.

Before heading to E & J’s for dinner we went over some other trip reports that covered some of our route.

E & J’s had a few people inside when we arrived, but it quickly filled up. We had the Roast Pork special with mash potatoes, gravy and vegetables. I also had the soup and the dessert.

While back at Wildwater’s a group of four came inside. They were planning to paddle the Kopka River. With all the flights backed up they decided to get a shuttle from Bert and put in at a different spot. Dave planted the seed of paddling the Winisk River. He said we could access it from the Pickle Lake Road.

Dave was looking at some of the canoeing books on a cart in the main room while I finish up writing for the night. Time 09:31 pm.

Lay Over Day: Sunday, 08-16-09

2009-12-27T16:37:00.000-08:00

Dave and I shared a room last night. Dave snored on and off.

Last night I heard Brenda say she was going to get up at 5 am. She would put out breakfast then get the guys up that Bert was going to drive to their put-in on the Kopka River. I got up shortly before I heard Brenda getting the other guys up. I laid in bed for another 1 1/2 hours. I never fell back to sleep.

The coffee was made and Brenda had put some fruit out. I went to my Suburban and got a protein drink and some yogurt.

It was around 08:00 am when we went over to Mattice Lake to see if Don was flying. Nope!

Dave and I took the opportunity to drive to the end of the Caribou Lake Road. We met Mary Jo, from Wisconsin, her and her husband own the Forrest Lodge, We spoke to her before deciding to drive a ways on the Airport Road for a few kilometers. This is a dirt/gravel road and travel is fairly slow. This is the road we will travel coming from Boucher’s Bear Camp back to Armstrong after we complete our canoe trip.

We drove back to Mattice Lake to see if anyone was flying, yet. It was 10:45 am when the Beaver floatplane at a neighboring dock took off with some people. Don Elliott was just taking off in his Otter. Don’s Beaver stayed tied up at his dock.

The Beaver next door took about 4 to 5 trips. Don’s Beaver on another lake took one group of two to a lake nearby, but that was it. These two guys stayed at Wildwater’s last night that went in Don’s Beaver, but they weren’t going far.

Everyone was watching the skies. Sometimes the sky appeared it was going to clear then the fog would roll in. Don’s outposts on the different lakes were calling in every 15 minutes giving updates on their local weather. They were wondering when Don would be coming. Other guys at the outpost were calling in to have someone call their wives to let them know they weren’t coming out. Some of these people were supposed to be out two days earlier. Other groups have been trying to get into the outpost the last two days. Things were getting severely backed up and the weather wasn’t getting any better.

Several of us just sat around and talked. Eventually the rain really started to fall. Just before it did Don took off in the Otter with the group that was staying in the cabin that we were supposed to stay in last night. This group was trying to get to Whitewater Lake. Don returned shortly with this group. Don said he got only to Caribou Lake and had to turn around because of the very heavy fog.

Before all that took place Dave went into town to eat. I stayed behind and ate some chicken, protein drink and a bagel with some peanut butter. I wanted to finish off some of the food I brought from home.

There were groups of fishermen from New York, Wisconsin, Iowa and other places. Most of the people were taking the delays in stride others not so well.

Finally about 5 pm Don came out and told everyone that they weren’t going to try and fly anymore today. They were trying to find accommodations for everyone that was stranded who were flying to one of their outpost. That left Dave and I to find our own lodging tonight. Well, we hoped Wildwater’s had room.

There was one group of four that was going to sleep on cots in the office of Mattice Lake. They were going to be joined by a father and his adult son. Other people were going to Elliott’s private cabin on MacKenzie Lake. Don made the offer for us to stay on the floor or a cot in the office, if there was room.

We decided to spend the money and stay at Wildwater’s if they had room. We talked to Brenda who said they didn’t have room even though there wasn’t anyone there other than the three of us. We checked in after Brenda was done pulling our leg.

Dave and I went back to E & J’s in Armstrong for another wonderful special.This time it was roast chicken breast, mash potatoes with gravy, piece of bread and dessert.

When we arrived there was another father and son who were being flown by another outfitter and they were grounded. More groups started arriving to the restaurant. I also saw a couple with their two teenage children come in to eat dinner.

Back at Wildwater’s we talked to Brenda. We kept watching the weather while I wrote in my journal.The closest town on the weather station was Thunder Bay and it’s 150 miles south.

Brenda told us the weather has been like this all summer long. The jet stream had pretty much stalled over the area all summer long. The past week-end was the nicest days of the summer. I guess Nadine Powell of the weather station wasn’t kidding when she said summer finally arrived, but it now has settled back into this system.

Bert told us last night he hasn’t seen this much water in the rivers at this time of the year in the past 10 years. He told us the water level was spring time levels.

The couple with the two teenage children that I saw earlier at E & J’s came walking in. After they got settled in we began to talk about their trip. They were from Toronto, Canada and they have been taking a yearly family canoe trip.

They had decided to do about a week long trip as I recall maybe 10 days. They were going to fly into Burntrock Lake then paddle out of the park. They planned to do some of the same route that we travelled last year. They had some topo maps of the area, but they didn’t have any portages or other information marked on them. I tried to help them the best I could with what I remembered. They mentioned last year they went to Quetico with their maps and did the same type of planning. Very little, if any! I have a different personality and wouldn’t think of just grabbing a map, a canoe, then leave without being some what better prepared.

Now that I’m sitting here at my computer writing this trip report after we have experienced the extremely high water I hope they made it without any mishaps. I gave them my blog address while at Wildwater’s and I asked them to e-mail me to let me know how their trip went, but I have never heard from them.

Day 1: Monday, 08-17-09

2009-12-27T16:36:00.002-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Pashkokogan Lake

East Pashkokogan Lake
Unnamed
Greenbush Lake

Travel Time: 7:53

Distance: 21 miles / 33.8 km

I slept pretty good last night. I woke to the sounds of the Beavers flying at 06:21 am. Two beavers took off, then I heard the distinct sound of the Otter. When I got up out of bed and walked into the common area there was no one else up. I went to my Suburban and grabbed a protein drink and a plum. When I walked back inside Brenda was up putting out the continental breakfast. The coffee was ready.

The family of four from Toronto got up and had breakfast. Before Dave and I left from Mattice Lake we took some photos of the family then Brenda took pictures of all of us together. The temperature was in the 50’s with blue skies.

We left the B & B at 08:30 am. When we got to Mattice Lake we took care of all the paperwork, then paid our money for the flight; camping fees on crown land, Albany Provincial Park and Wabakimi Provincial Park land; fishing license and truck shuttle. After the paperwork was done I grabbed one pack and my pelican case with camera gear and placed it near the dock. I went back to my Suburban to move it where it would be parked for the next three weeks.

I was up at my Suburban organizing the last of my gear and making sure I had everything. I carried my second pack down to the other one. My pack was there, but my bright orange pelican case was missing. I couldn’t believe someone could have mistakingly took my pelican case with my camera gear. We were close to leaving and the last thing I wanted to do was leave without my camera. I asked some others who were standing around if they saw anyone take it. I asked Renita, who took over Yolanda’s position, if she had seen it. I followed her inside to talk to Annette Elliott who said she told Dave to take our gear to the end of the dock. Annette carried my pelican case to the end of the dock where we could place our packs. When I looked at the end of the dock there it was. What a relief!

Henry, the pilot of the Beaver, touched down at 10:08 am to prepare for our flight. Henry and the other helper, I never got his name, tied the canoe to the struts. While this was going on I talked to Tom Hurtte from Indiana.

We were finally going to be flying to Pashkokogan Lake shortly. At 10:36 am we were on our way. This was Henry’s first year at Mattice Lake. Dave showed him on the map where we were going since Henry hadn’t been there before and didn’t know where it was located.

The beaver wasn’t as smooth as the otter with the canoe tied to the struts.

While flying in a NW direction outside the park I could see all the logging that has taken place with numerous logging roads. When we got to Pashkokogan Lake Henry made a big circle before dropping down and landing on the lake at 11:22 am. He told us it was 63 nautical miles from Mattice Lake. (UTM # 1) (15U 0681239 5646755)

The wind was beginning to build and it sure was a good thing we left when we did. Henry got out of the beaver first and untied the canoe. We then got out and we kept the canoe next to the float while we loaded the canoe. Henry wished us good luck just before we paddled away from the beaver so he could get back into the air. I took a GPS reading where we started from.

We paddled to land where we secured the packs into the canoe. We noticed that the water level was up significantly. The water level was up into the trees on shore. We paddled pretty much our intended route on Pashkokogan Lake along the south shore. This is a big lake. The wind was kicking up the waves and they were piling up on the east end of the lake where we were looking for our first portage. We were surfing the 2 foot waves going to the east shore, but then we needed to follow the shore to the north while looking for the portage. Now the waves were hitting us broadside.

We missed the portage the first time. We paddled almost to the end of the bay along the east shore just so we could rule out that we didn’t go far enough. When we came back down we found the portage tucked underneath the shrubs. The actual portage was under water at the start for about 40 meters. We dragged the canoe up to the point where we couldn’t drag it anymore then we unloaded the canoe. I was going to take another GPS reading here, but I never did since we were in the bush aways. We portage the 150 meter portage where I took a GPS reading (UTM # 2) at the put-in on East Pashkokogan Lake. This portage was very wet, under water in many places, lots of mosquitos, but it was flat.

We ate lunch before moving on. We had peanut butter, pita bread, gorp and a energy bar.

The wind on East Pashkokogan didn’t bother us since it was coming out of the west.

We made it to our second portage. This was the “boardwalk” portage. There were logs that were placed lengthwise and crosswise. This was probably used to drag boats across it. The portage was under water at the beginning. The middle section of the portage had leveled rocks, mud and roots.

Once we got across this portage we were now on Greenbush Lake. Another big lake. Once we got to the main body of water we hugged the north shore. While traveling this shore we came across a shore lunch site that I marked on my topo map. We also saw in another area where an outfitter had a tent camp behind one of the islands. This was about 5 km from the beginning of the main body of water. Dave was told there were a lot of campsites on this lake. Well, there wasn’t any on the side we travelled and there wasn’t anything obvious when looking at the surrounding areas of the lake. We probably couldn’t have safely crossed the lake anyways with the size of the waves.

It was 07:03 pm when Dave thought he spotted a potential area to camp on a larger island, but after he walked over all the deadfall there wasn’t any good areas for one tent let alone two.

We checked another spot on a high outcropping on a point. At one time this was an excellent campsite, but now there are many deadfalls taking up most of all the good sites for tents. It’s pretty limited now, but it’ll work for us. (UTM # 3). There hadn’t been any recent activity. Enough room for two 2-man tents (2 x 2).

Dark clouds have been following us for most of the day so we put up our tents right away. It began to sprinkle while putting them up, but the real dark clouds were moving off to the west.

Dave found some more rocks and added them to an old fire ring to cook over. We had plenty of wood, but it was all very wet. It was hard to light the fire even harder to keep it lit. The other bad thing was it took a long time to cook dinner that consisted of steaks, mushrooms and coffee.

I’m in my tent at 10:05 pm. This was a long day. I’m too tired and it’s too dark to write in my journal tonight.

Day 2: Tuesday, 08-18-09

2009-12-27T16:36:00.001-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Greenbush Lake
Little Metig Lake
Metig Lake
Rockcliff Lake

Travel Time: 9:03

Distance: 12.25 miles / 19.7 km

I’m awake at 05:02 am and it’s still dark out. It rained for over three hours last night. It stopped sometime around 02:30 am.

I didn’t start moving around until 05:39 am, then I started putting clothes and stuff inside the stuff sacks. I’m outside the tent at 06:15 am. Dave is still inside his tent. When he got out he wanted to have a fire instead of cooking on the stove. It took a long time to gather enough small pieces of wood although they are all wet. We used the stove to heat water for coffee, but cooked breakfast with wood. Again. it took a while to heat the food up.

I’m not sure what the temperature was, but it’s cloudy out. In fact, when we left the campsite at 09:06 am it began to sprinkle.

We got to our first marked portage at 10:22 am. This portage was marked as 400 meters river right. It was also marked “muddy”. Since it was marked “muddy” before all the rain this summer, not including the three hour rain last night, we might have some troubles with this one. So far the portages we have crossed have had significant portions where they have been under water.

This portage was nothing, but mud. It was knee to thigh high deep and deeper in some areas. This portage was just going to be too tough to triple portage.

Dave started off slowly with the canoe because he was sinking in the mud. I let him walk a ways before attempting it myself with my heavier pack, water bottles and Pelican case. It was a slow slog. Every step I sunk deep into the mud.

Eventually, I made it up to where Dave was standing without the canoe on his shoulders about 100 meters in. We discussed the matter, then decided we should try to line the rapids. Once we got back to the canoe we threw our gear in it. We ended up going to river left in our attempt to line and cut our way down stream. Dave was chest deep in some areas while I was chin deep. Where the rapids were moving too fast we cut our way through the bush. It seemed to take for ever. There wasn’t time to be thinking of other things during this time.

Besides cutting our way downstream there was one section where we had to remove everything from the canoe and portage it about 40 meters.

Finally, at 01:08 pm we were through this section and we were now on Little Metig Lake. After crossing the main body of water we came across three swifts. We needed to line the first one at the first narrows, then we ran the last two that were in the narrows after making the left hand bend,.

When we came across an open area on river right on Metig Lake that appeared to have been used as a moose camp we stopped and had lunch at 1:58 pm. While eating lunch we walked around the area scouting it out. There were blueberries, but not in the quantity that I saw last year. There were some old wall tent poles lying on the ground.

We wrapped up lunch at 2:28 pm. There was an old snowmobile on shore down from this lunch site on the point.

There are three portages between Metig Lake and Rockcliffe Lake. We were led to believe that all the portages were on river left. I found information just before our trip that the first portage was on river left, second portage was on river right and the third portage was back on river left.

When we got to the area where we thought a portage would be was in fact on river left. It had a wet, muddy beginning. I walked the portage on the way back and got 187 meters. I was going to trust my findings that the next portage was on river right. We were approaching the rapids and it sure didn’t look good on river left. There was a small opening on river right that had to be the beginning of the portage right at the top of the rapids. We were able to get the bow into the opening as the current sung the stern downstream. We would have been in big trouble if we would have stayed river left. The second portage was 292 meters. The third portage was back on river left for for 237 meters. All three of these portages into Rockcliff Lake were in good shape.

We made it to Rockcliffe Lake at 6:09 pm. We knew there was a known campsite ( UTM # 4) on an island up the lake not far away. Once we found the campsite the first thing we did was scout out spots for our tents then set them up. While I got water to filter Dave began starting the fire. Once again the wood didn’t want to burn being it was so wet. After I got the water to filter I began cutting wood for the fire.

When it was just about time to relax a little it began to sprinkle. We quickly put up the tarp over the fire and made sure everything else was put inside the tents or in the packs. The tarp cause the smoke to linger underneath the tent causing my eyes to burn and aged my lungs by about 5 years or so.

We had blackened chicken and mash potatoes tonight. Another long day so I went in the tent at 09:30 pm. Today was exhausting.

We didn’t have time to do any scouting for any First Nation grave sites. Another night where I didn’t write in my journal. I’ve been taking notes during the day in my notebook that I keep in my pants pocket. It’s waterproof which is good.

Day 3: Wednesday, 08-19-09

2009-12-27T16:35:00.002-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Rockcliff Lake
Misehkow River

Travel Time: 5:38

Distance: 14.75 miles / 23.7 km

Back into the same routine of waking up, this time at 06:12 am, before packing up my stuff from inside the tent. I was greeted to more gray skies when I got out of my tent at 06:30 am.

Dave started the fire while splitting the other smaller pieces of wood into even thinner pieces yet.Trying to get to the drier middle sections. While he was doing that I cut more wood from around the area for him to split.

There were numerous mosquitos out this morning looking for a meal.

Dave finally got a flame and cooked up some sweet potato pancakes with ham. Lets not forget the coffee.

We were on the water at 09:20 am. We planned on stopping at a known cabin not too far from the campsite on the west shore. Twenty minutes later we arrived at the cabin. There was no one around. After looking over the area it didn’t appear if anyone had been here this year. There was a magazine with the date of August 2006 on the cover inside the cabin. I took a few pictures of the cabin and surrounding area. The dock was tipped.

Rockcliffe Lake is a long, thin, north to south orientated lake. This morning the lake was calm. While paddling down the lake to the north the skies began opening up. When the sun peeked out it made paddling very warm.

When we got to the first 70 meter portage we got out and scouted the water. From information that Dave received all we knew there were some rapids here. We didn’t have any information on which side the portage was on. From this same source they didn’t find the portage, either. I determined we could run this section without any difficulty. Before running this section I reviewed some different strokes with Dave that included the draw, post, and cross bow draw.

I don’t remember exactly what Dave said to me before we started to run this section, but my comment was something similar to, Dave, you better learn quickly or we’re in trouble!

We safely ran this section of water.

The next area where we had to get out and scout was at the next set of rapids. We knew there were rapids here and there was supposed to be a portage, but was it on river right or left.

Once we got out to scout we both were scanning the immediate area and across the river for any blazes. Dave asked me if I saw any, my reply was, No.

I needed to walked toward the rapids on river right to get a better look at things. There appeared to be be a faint opening next to a large, downed dead jack pine. When I got to it all I saw were many more blowdowns. There wouldn’t be any walking with our gear in this area. I made my way further down the shore through this tangled mess. I found a blaze, but there was no possibility to walk with our gear from the canoe to where I was standing. I walked in the water next to the shore line back to the canoe where Dave was waiting for me. We needed to cut three sweepers to get to the area where I found the blaze. The current was too fast and the water too deep to walk around these sweepers.

We were able to cut our way across the 45 meter portage. The actual beginning of this portage was right after another large jack pine sweeper before the start of the rapids. There wasn’t any way to swing the canoe around this sweeper before being sweep down the rapids. (UTM # 5 ??)

We had the next portage marked as 500 meters. We were about half way through the fast water before I pulled out my GPS to see exactly where we when I found that we had missed the beginning of a portage if there was one. We paddled through the rest of this fast water to the Misehkow River.

There were another five or so areas of faster water before we found this nice elevated campsite on river right at 02:58 pm. ( UTM # 6) (3 x 2). This was a place that we needed to take advantage of since there are very few campsites. We needed to dry out our gear anyways. Everything was wet or damp.

It was nice to be able to relax a little after setting up camp and gathering wood. I was finally able to write in my journal that I hadn’t been able to do since we stated our trip.

When I looked at our itinerary I saw we had made up one day. We are supposed to be here on our 4th day. Today was a much needed break from the conditions we have encounter the first 2 days of our trip. Deep down inside I hoped for more days like this since the last third of our trip was supposed to be the most difficult.

Maybe we will continue to make up some time.

Tonight as I said I was finally able to get caught up in my journal. I’m in my tent right now. It’s 09:27 pm. Dave went to his tent about twenty minutes ago.

The bugs are bad. I’ve been wearing for the most part my short sleeve t-shirt. My arms are all eaten up. Earlier, when I pulled off my OTB boots I realized why my right shin was so sore. My shin was swollen and bruised. Yesterday, when we were lining the canoe around the “muddy” 400 meter portage my leg dropped between two large rocks in the fast water. It really hurt at the time, but I had other things on my mind to get safely through the rapids.

Tonight after supper of Tortellini and cheese soup, Very good, Dave!, I walked to the next set of rapids. The rapids started around the bend. It was another judgement call. Around the corner the strong current broke off in a couple directions around an island with other obstructions before the island to cause some concern. I didn’t think we could safely run it with out causing damage to our kevlar canoe.

I followed the whale back to the inside corner of the bend where I found a old portage. I didn’t mark this take-out since most people would probably use the campsite, but the take-out is right before the right hand bend on river right. The old portage trail ran through the bush through the wet moss just past the last bit of fast water. We will put in here where there was a small fire ring. (UTM # 7)

Tonight I had time to go around and take some photos. I even got the tripod out. Today the skies were mostly sunny. It was nice for a change. Again, it was nice to stop early to do some other fun things...photos.

Day 4: Thursday, 08-20-09

2009-12-27T16:35:00.001-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Misehkow River

Travel Time: 10:14

Distance: 4.75 miles / 7.6 km

I lost my small yellow note book that I carry with me with the detailed information for this day. I write down information as I go through the day. My notebook is water proof, but we have been getting wet everyday so I came up with the not so great idea of putting the notebook in a plastic bag. I thought it would save time trying to dry it out.

My small notebook is usually kept in my pants pocket. What happened with this notebook was the plastic bag caused the notebook to float out of my pocket when I was swimming above Iron Falls. This actually happens tomorrow, but I thought I would let you know now. In fact, even after I discovered my notebook missing I was able to jot some information down about this day because it was pretty fresh in my mind, but....

Now back to the trip report...

Yesterday, I was lucky we stopped early to write in my journal. I filled in most of the information for those three days from my yellow notebook, but left some stuff out to be filled in later. Now that won’t happened since all that info is now floating in the Misehkow River some where.

The information for this day is a little sketchy.

I don’t know what time we got up, but we had another of Dave’s fabulous breakfasts over an open fire. Once camp was broken down we carried all our gear from the campsite to the put-in I found yesterday. We walked the whaleback for 65 meters to the inside corner of the bend to the start of another older portage.This inside corner where the portage begins is on river right. We followed the faint old 60 meter portage through the wet moss to the put-in. (UTM # 7)

So far everything was going smooth, but about one kilometer away we ran into more rapids we couldn’t run.

The water levels were extremely high and the water was racing. Under normal conditions I’m sure if we couldn’t run the rapids then we could probably safely line the canoes through. I say that because we found some portages that haven’t been used in years. When we found the old portages we actual had to get out of the canoe further upstream.

Well, this portage was example of what I was talking about. After we got out of the canoe on river right ( UTM # 8) we walked through the bush looking for any old blazes marking a portage trail. We found some but we needed to go through some different areas because of all the down trees.

Dave and I spent about three to four hours, maybe a little more, cutting our way through this area. It ended up being a 340 meter portage. We also put new blazes up for those who follow our trail in the future. You should do it soon because the boreal forest is constantly changing. Dave and I spent a considerable amount of time cutting the portage and I must say it was a damn good job! Put-in (UTM #9).

We needed to cut another 195 meter portage on river right not far from the 340 meter one. We had the portage marked as 60 meters. Again, this took at least a couple hours.

Take-out (UTM # 10) ; (Put-in UTM # 11)

Most of the time when we cut our way across an area we each took a pack and a saw.That way we only had two more carries after cutting our way to the end.

I remember Dave asking me if I wanted some bug repellant. He saw my arms bleeding from all the fly bites. I accepted and later on I found my own stuff.

Once we were back on the water we paddled while continuing to look for an area to camp. Once we got to the widening on the Misehkow we were aware of a moose camp some where in this area. We didn’t have any location of it so while we were paddling along river left we kept looking about for any sign of the camp on the far shore. It wouldn’t be easy to spot anything on the far shore as we were looking from a distance.

We were now approaching the end of this widening area of the river. I was beginning to think we would be making our own camp when we saw on river right with what appeared some sort of rugged frame, possibly the old moose camp. We pulled over and got out of the canoe. The area was mostly underwater. I walked further back away from shore on a trail and found a small dry area, but it wasn’t suitable for one tent let alone two. It was surrounded by water.

Dave looked across the river and saw what appeared to be a boat pulled up on shore. We paddled to it and found two boats cached. (UTM # 15) There was a well worm 50 meter trail up an incline to an actual moose camp. (UTM # 14) Well, it was 7:44 pm. It’s been a long day, but we now have a good area to camp.

We looked the area over before putting up our tents. I walked the trail back down to the water and cut a tree that was lying across the trail before getting water to filter.

Dave used two large pieces of cut logs to set up his grill to cook dinner. We were cooking and eating in the dark. There were even wooden benches to sit on around the fire. What luxury!!

Day 5: Friday, 08-21-09

2009-12-27T16:33:00.002-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Misehkow River

Travel Time: 12:35

Distance: 20.5 miles / 33 km

By the time we got on the water it was 09:33 am. We needed to haul everything back down to the water down the 50 meter trail.

Today we needed to get around Iron Falls. We knew there was a portage on river left at the top of the falls. Now with the higher water level the class 1 rapids would probably be pushing 3.

In Ron Reid and Janet Grand’s book, Canoeing Ontario’s Rivers, they mentioned that the portage was on river right that cut across the bend. The book was written in 1985 so it’s anyones guess it the portage would still exist. The book goes further and said there was a campsite at the falls. The Canoe Atlas of the Little North shows a 700 meter on river right. Again, that could be very old information. Jonathan Berger and Thomas Terry probably got the information from Reid and Grand.

We approached the general area of Iron Falls at 11:30 am. We rounded a bend and in front of us was some recent flagging on river right. (UTM # 16) The river then made another bend to the left with some rapids and very large standing waves up to three feet high. Past this section the river made another bend to the right to the top of Iron Falls, then it drops through a series of chutes. As someone put it, if you miss the portage on river left , you die!

I haven’t taken the time so far to described our paddling set-up. We are paddling a Souris River Quetico 18.5 foot canoe. We have five packs that contained 21 days of food (and we eat well). I’m in the stern and I weight about 155 pounds. Dave is in the bow and although I don’t know how much he weights, but he has maybe 100 pounds on me. What I’m saying is that we are bow down and we don’t have much freeboard. We need to be careful what we run.

Could we be that lucky that someone recently flagged the portage on river right. We wouldn’t need to risk running the fast water with the rapids and the standing waves before the falls.

We got out of the canoe and took our saws. (UTM # 16) We notice that the flagging continued into the bush. After cutting some smaller trees out of the way we notice that the flagging continued directly south. Not only that some of the flagging was placed inside some very brushy areas. If someone was flagging a way through the bush they wouldn’t have done it the way this flagging was placed.

We decided to walk back toward the canoe then walk the shore line on river right to the east. I came across some more flagging but nothing that looked like an old portage or temporary trail that someone would carry a canoe across.

We had no other choice but to get through the large standing waves. The largest waves were right down the middle. We didn’t want to be there. Running the right side was out of the question even if we made it past this stretch because of the fast water just before the falls. We wouldn’t be able to stop.

The only way was river left and that had it’s own set problems. This inside corner on river left had fast water rushing pass it pushing the current to the center of the river where the large standing waves were and where we would surely swamp the canoe.

I explained to Dave what I needed him to do up in the bow and how the canoe would react. We needed to stay out from the shore on river left just pass the large rock. When the nose of the canoe hit the eddy line the canoe would be pushed to the right. We wanted to be left of center going down and then move further left past the next big set of standing waves. Once we made it past those we wanted to go to shore on river left to get out of the main current. There we could look for the portage on river left above the falls.

This was explained a couple times. We got in the canoe and paddled upstream to an area where we needed to set up before running it.There wasn’t any more time to discuss this as the current pushed us forward. I picked a line on river left and we hit it but we were pushed closer toward the center of the river into the 3 foot waves. We took on a lot of water and I yelled for Dave to keep paddling to the shore on river left.

While standing in the water on river left we took the packs out and emptied the canoe. Well, one more section to go, but from here these waves looked even bigger.

Another game plan was discussed. We didn’t do any better this time, in fact, we completely swamped the canoe. It was a very strange feeling watching Dave slowing sinking out of sight and the packs were now floating in the water, but still strapped to the canoe. I felt the cold water rising on my chest, then the next thing I knew I was floating down stream away from the canoe. There was a brief sense of panic when I saw that I floating away from the canoe, but I knew I needed to swim out of the current toward the canoe. I couldn’t see Dave from my position. When I swam over to the canoe I grabbed the painter line at the stern. That’s when I saw Dave swimming with the front painter in his hand.

Once again, we made it back to shore. We unstrapped the packs and got them on shore. Again, all of this while we were standing in the water. We emptied the canoe and pointed the bow downstream before putting the packs inside.

While standing in the water we got back into the canoe, then we looked for the portage downstream. We saw an area that we thought might be the opening. We made it to the area and quickly got out. Once on land we found we we about 10 meter from it. There was a tree blocking the actual landing, so we just lined the canoe over to the correct spot. (UTM # 17)

After we got all the gear out of the canoe I saw that I had water inside my map case. I knew at one time this case was waterproof.

The portage was 110 meters long and well used over the years. When I went to grab my little yellow notebook in the plastic bag to marked the portage distance I notice that it was gone. Well, I’m glad it went down Iron Falls and not me.

Our next big obstacle was at the put in. (UTM # 18) The water was over the rock where a person would normally launch the canoe. Dave put the canoe into the water while I held onto it keeping it from banging the rock as it bounced up and down. The water was rushing pass too fast and waves were bouncing the canoe where it needed to be to sit in it. The waves were also bouncing back from the left bank a couple feet away. Once all our gear was inside Dave got in the water right next to shore and I followed with the stern of the canoe. Once the canoe was far enough downstream while standing in 3 to 4 foot of water we got inside and took off. It seemed we were in the area of the falls forever.

Dave had information that there was a “good” campsite 14 km downstream of Iron Falls.

We kept our eye out for any sign of any campsite as we paddled. The first big opening in the river after Iron Falls we came across a Geologist camp with two cabins. (UTM # 19). We saw a satellite dish on the point before seeing the first cabin. That explained all the flagging we have been seeing in the bush. We pulled in and took a look around. I got some photos of some of the core samples that were in large trays outside. It wasn’t until we were back on the water when we saw the second cabin.

We continued on our way to the NE. Then I noticed my compass reading moving N, then NW, then W, then SW, then finally back to NE. There must have been a large mineral deposit nearby. I guess that would explain why the prospectors cabins were here and all the flagging in the bush. We also saw a survey monument somewhere in our travels.

It was getting later in the day and it was obvious that we passed the “good” campsite that Dave had information on. We kept looking at our topo maps for some higher ground where there might be the possibility of a campsite or where we could make one. It sure didn’t look good.

We finally were running out of time to find a site. Dave got out of the canoe several times looking for anywhere to throw a couple tents. Finally at 08:08 pm we bushwhacked two tent sites up in a blow down area. (UTM # 20) We cooked dinner using my Peak One Stove after clearing areas for our tents. Another night of not writing in my journal. I lost information from the last 5 days when I lost my yellow notebook earlier today. I was finally able to make this entry on 08-23-09.

Day 6: Saturday, 08-22-09

2009-12-27T16:33:00.001-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Misehkow River

Travel Time: 9:18

Distance: 12.5 miles / 20.1 km

It got colder out last night.I didn’t want to crawl out of my warm sleeping bag when I woke at 06:30 am. It felt so good. There was a fog over the river when I finally crawled out of the tent.

Dave was still in his tent when I made coffee on the stove. He got out shortly after the coffee was done. Good timing! We cooked Red River cereal on the stove. No fire this morning.

Once the sun came up over the tree tops it began to quickly warm up. The skies were clear, but then it started to cloud up while packing up camp.

It was a nice paddle early on.

We came to our first set of rapids today. We pulled over to river left to scout. (UTM # 21)There was an area that was probably used by the First Nation people as a hunting camp on top of the higher ground at the take-out. I started to follow a trail from the old moose camp site that paralled the river, but it went further up in the bush. It eventually dwindled out. I came back looking for Dave, but I couldn’t find him. I later found out he had walked another trail the went away from the direction that I walked. Dave told me he just wanted to see where it went.

Eventually I located him and he followed me going downstream through the bush. I walked this area and couldn’t locate any evidence of an old portage.What did that mean? We needed to run the rapids. We took on a little water, but being so bow down it was expected.

We came across another campsite (2 x 2) up a steep, sandy bank on the outside corner of a bend in the river on river right. (UTM # 22) We had lunch there and noticed that there hasn’t been any recent activity on the site.

Dave wanted to find the portage to the Greenmantle River. We both looked at our maps and narrowed down an area where we figured the portage would most likely be.

We located the portage without any problem. There were a couple blazes marking the portage. (UTM # 24) We walked the portage for about 40 meters or so. There was also a heavily used animal trail that paralleled the shoreline a few meters from shore.

The second set of rapids we ran them and again just taking on a little water.

We could see some big rapids and the fast water as we approached the 3rd set. We went river left to see if we could run it. No!

We then crossed to the other side above some sweepers. We couldn't safely get around the sweeper. There wasn’t any good place to land the canoe because the water level was up past the alders. The water was about 4 feet deep with a swift current right here next to shore. In a couple minutes I determined how deep it was.

While I held onto some alder branches Dave was trying to pull the bow of the canoe up into them to get to shore. As Dave pulled the canoe in at an angle the swift current grabbed the stern and immediately swung me around downstream.I needed to get out of the canoe immediately because of the sweeper. I yelled at Dave to hold onto the bow before I jumped out of the canoe. I was able to grab the canoe on the upstream side as Dave held on and tied the canoe to a tree on shore. (UTM # 25)

The canoe was lying on it’s side with the packs once again floating on top of the water. I was able to unstrap each pack and walk them up to Dave who then threw them up on shore. After the packs were up on shore, no easy task, Dave needed to cut an area with his saw to get the canoe to shore so we could dump the water. To top that off we needed to cut a 245 meter portage around this set of rapids.

To our surprise there was a campsite at the end of where we cut. We found the campsite around 5 pm, but it wasn’t until 7:18 pm when we got all our gear across. (UTM # 26) (2 x 2)

Once again my maps that were in my second map case were wet. No luck in attempting to dry them tonight. I discovered I lost my second yellow notebook in a plastic bag. The lessen here is not to put it in a plastic bag. I used two more yellow notebooks for the rest of the trip and never lost another one. I also used a “space pen” with the water proof notebook so the ink doesn’t smear too bad.

Dave was finally able to get a decent fire going tonight. The wood appeared to be slightly drier.

I can hear the sound of rushing water while inside my tent. I think we got on the water around 10 am today. It was a little later than any of the other days so far.

We have been putting in some long days except for day 3. It’s 10:21 pm and I’m going to sleep.

Day 7: Sunday, 08-23-09

2009-12-27T16:32:00.002-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Misehkow River
Albany River

Travel Time: 9:54

Distance: 12.4 miles / 20.0 km

It got cool out again last night, but not as cool as the night before. I told Dave last night when he woke up to holler at me. I wouldn’t be able to hear him moving around in his tent because of the rushing water next to our campsite.

I pulled my head out of my sleeping bag at 06:30 am. It was starting to get getting light out. Dave hollered to me at 06:45 am. He was still in his tent when he yelled.

Everything is all wet. I’ve been wet everyday except day 3 when we were able to stop early to dry things.

My light weight wool shirt was still damp, but on it goes. Things looked promising today with the blue skies.

I needed to change out my water filter today. Dave cooked up another breakfast. This time it was eggs and summer sausage.

I wonder what was in store for us today. We have cut all but one portage trail that we needed to walk.

Today will be the start of another yellow notebook with no plastic bag.

We got on the water at 09:24 am and approaching the first set of rapids ten minutes later. After determining we could run them we ran a line 1/3 from river right.

We got out at the second set of rapids at 10:37 am.We went to one side and then the other. We got close to shore on river right then cut some alders to land the canoe. (UTM # 27 ) With the high water we needed to land upstream from where the normal portage was located. I walked the portage past two set of rapids. We couldn’t run the second one because of a 3 foot ledge.

At 12:15 pm we had finally cut our way across this section carrying one pack, but now we needed to get all the other gear across. It was 258 meters long and we were only able to use about 50 meters of the old portage.

Dave had a heck of a time getting the canoe across this portage. This portage wasn’t cut to the standards of our previous ones. Maybe the “excitement” of cutting portages are over.

We got all our gear across at 1:56 pm. (UTM #28). It was time for lunch here when Dave got done carrying his stuff at 2 pm. Lunch was peanut bitter and jelly, gorp and an energy bar.

It was very warm in the bush while cutting this last portage. The skies are now starting to cloud up. The bugs were once again in full force. My arms, neck and other exposed skin are all bitten up. The small little flies take a bite drawing blood and causing little red bumps.The bugs have been extremely bad except when the temperature drops, but they are right back once it warms back up.

I was feeling beat after cutting our way across this portage. The high water is making this trip much more difficult than it would normally be. We were done with lunch at 2:27 pm. We need to cut some more alder because we can’t get the canoe in the water. We should be done in 10 to 15 minutes.

One more swift prior to getting to three large stretches of fast water before the Albany. Prior to the first section of fast water I got out on river left and scouted the area. I needed to walk quite a a distance to check it all out. We bobbed all the way to the Albany. Use caution here in high water.

Once on the Albany River we paddled downstream to the north looking for a campsite. We found one on the second island. (UTM #29)

The sun wasn’t out but when we put up our tents they dried out along with our other stuff that was placed out.

Dave started a fire and we made a pot of coffee and once it was ready we each had a mocha to celebrate getting through the Misehkow.

For dinner we had tortellini and olive oil.

It sprinkled on and off while at the campsite. Dave went to his tent early. I stayed out and put some more wood on the fire while writing in my journal, but I needed to go in my tent once it began to sprinkle harder. I was inside at 9:30 pm.

Once the wind died down the bugs were back. I’m safe from the bugs, but it’s hot inside the tent.

My hands are sore from all the small cuts I’ve received while cutting the portage trails. The 21 inch Corona professional pruning saw has been a lifesaver in cutting the trails.

Well, it’s 10:16 pm time to go to sleep.

Day 8: Monday, 08-24-09

2009-12-27T16:32:00.001-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Albany River

Travel Time: 6:17

Distance: 21.4 miles / 34.4 km

It was warm inside my tent when I got in last night. It felt like it was the warmest evening since we left on this trip. There were some large gust of wind last night but it was calm with gray skies when I woke. I listened to the beaver flap it’s tail a couple times around 04:30 am.

While I was inside my tent I had a hard time determining if it was sprinkling out or if it was the bugs outside hitting the tent.

Well I was ready to get up at 06:25 am. I began doing my lower back stretches.

I discovered a lot of bugs this morning when I crawled out of the tent. There wasn’t any wind to send them elsewhere.

First things first, I began a fire and put the coffee on.

My hands are still sore from all the small cuts. I’ve been cleaning them when I have a chance.

When Dave got up he realized he left SPOT on all night. Dave began cooking some raspberry “hippie pancakes” from Sturdi Wheat Foods, Inc. I took some photos of the pancakes. I should have got out the tripod because of the low light. Next, Dave cooked up some bacon. He said we were eating in shifts. I said, fine, as long as we’re eating.

We began our first full day on the Albany at 09:28 am. Still very cloudy out. The river was very wide at this point, but we could feel the strong current pushing us.

It wasn’t long before we both saw an object in the distance next to the shore on river right. It appeared to be a canoe. We decided we may as well paddle over to it. It was a 15 foot canoe that was submerged. The right side had a rip in it with some other holes.

The current picked up significantly whenever the river narrowed. We moved over to river right and inched our way around a right hand bend to see if we could run the section that said “rapids” on our topo maps.

got caught in the alders loosing my hat and paddle. I grabbed my hat and I yelled to Dave to grab my paddle. He didn’t hear me right away then he tried knocking my fleeing paddle with his paddle. It didn’t work while I watched my lonely paddle heading downstream to the rapids. This was a fairly long section of rapids, but it appeared we could make it ourselves. We marked where we last saw my paddle when it hit the top of the rapids.

I grabbed my spare paddle before we continued to the top of the rapids. Luckily, when we got through them we spotted my paddle. Dave picked up my paddle with his hand this time. I was united with it once again.

Based upon what we saw here wherever the river narrows we figured the current would pick up significantly with the possibility of some rapids or standing waves.

The next fast water/standing waves was when we were heading east just before the river turned south. The third stretch of fast water was about 4.5 km south.

We found a “moose camp / temporary shelter” when we were looking for a place to have lunch. All the surrounding land around the shelter was underwater . This shelter was about 1 km west of Patte Lake on river right. We moved on!. As we paddled north from Patte Lake we saw a aluminum boat along the south shore of an island. The boat was amongst the alders and it didn’t appear to be tied up.

We briefly looked for an access point to get on the island, nope, not here. We now continued on toward Upper Eskakwa Falls. We heard the distinct sound of rushing water from a distance. Now we could see some rapids to the far side of river left. We couldn’t see the entire river here. While paddling near the shore on river right the river made a long gentle bend to the right. Not knowing exactly where the portage was we pulled into some alders. I marked this with UTM #30.

I walked quite a ways scouting the rapids, but eventually I found the portage. I made a mental plan and walked back to Dave. I told him what we needed to do. Actually the portage on river right is easily accessible, but I didn’t know it before hand. Due to the very high water we surely didn’t want to miss any portages. This whole trip we would be getting out of the canoe before any high water portages if there were any and scout.

We hugged the the shore next to the alders and when the opening for the portage came into view we pulled right in. (UTM #31)

The portage was in good shape. Hey, we didn’t have to do any cutting to get across. There were some large trees across the trail and another one about knee high. I could swing my legs over the tree while carrying a pack. Dave needed to drop the canoe before getting to the other side. We still are doing triple portages. This one measured 252 meters with little use.

Once we had made our first carry across we found a campsite at the put-in (UTM #32) (3 x 2). The water at the put-in was still going strong and was very turbulent, but there was no more portage. When we were done with the other two carries I suggested we camp here. Our notes didn’t have this campsite marked down. Our notes showed a campsite at the next falls. Our information has been fairly stretchy so far. I would hate to find out if we continued on that there actually wasn’t a campsite at the next one, then having to bush whack one.

This portage was flat, well worn and brushy at the start. Another thing we have noticed while paddling on the Albany was that the birches and tamarack are starting to turn yellow.

After we stopped at the campsite it felt cooler as I was starting to get chilled, but I was wet from falling up to my waist when I was scouting for this portage.

It was 3:45 pm when we arrived at the campsite here at Upper Eskakwa Falls. There was enough room for two tents. This campsite has been used for years. Back in the bush are a bunch of old cans and bottles, but it was much cleaner than I expected it to be.

Dave has his tent pitched next to the bigger rapids.

We made some coffee while getting caught up on our maps. Dave started dinner of pizza when we felt some sprinkles. We just got the tarp up when it started to rain hard. It has been raining hard for several hours We definitely don’t need this! There’s too much water in the river as it was.

Tomorrow, I think we’ll need to cut a trail further down stream from the end of the current put-in to safely get on the water. I can’t see the end of the standing waves looking down the river.

Earlier, on a tame section of the river I got out my GPS and we we moving at 6.7 mph without paddling.

There’s a loud roar at this campsite from the sound of the large rapids. It’s constant. Added to that was the hard rain hitting the tent. I’m going to try and get some sleep. I needed to put some clothes and other items underneath my sleeping pad to get a semi-level surface upon which I can sleep. The rain is still coming down hard.

I’m hoping the rain lets up before morning. We have several more sections of fast water not including the areas around the upcoming falls in the next couple of days.

Tonight I was going to take some photos of the large rapids next to camp using a slow shutter speed, but the rain messed all that up for me.

Day 9: Tuesday, 08-25-09

2009-12-27T16:31:00.000-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Albany River

Albany River / Mininiska Lake

Travel Time: 8:18

Distance: 20.5 / 33 km

It rained until about midnight last night, but it stayed warm. I didn’t sleep all that well last night due to the ground not being smooth and level under the sleeping pad. Although I feel pretty good since we only paddled and did just one portage yesterday. We didn’t have to cut our way across the portage either.

Since it was warm out it didn’t feel too bad putting on my wet pants. I put on my Danner boots on with dry socks at night and in the morning. Just before we leave a campsite I change into my OTB Odin boots. My socks are usually wet!

Another morning that I got out of my tent to gray skies. I made a fire and put the coffee on at 07:00 am. Dave was out of his tent 10 minutes later. When the coffee was done I had a mocha.

The rapids are still roaring. I went to the end of the portage to see if the water level had risen. It came up a little. I got some water to do the dishes from last night. We left the dishes because it was raining so hard. It was time to just get inside the tent instead of doing them.

I’m still concerned about putting the canoe in the water at the end of this portage. There are some large waves not too far out from shore and I can’t see if there are any sweepers coming out. If there was we wouldn’t be able to get safely through the big waves. Too early to do any swimming! In fact, I would rather not do anymore.

Dave’s cooking breakfast of eggs and some sort of meat at 07:50 am. Here comes another round of mist and sprinkles. The coffee is keeping warm by the fire. I may as well have another cup.

The last couple days we have been able to get a fire started fairly quickly, but now the wood is all wet again.

Hey, the sun might be trying to peek out...that didn’t last long.

At 09:30 am we were ready to go. I told Dave that we needed to scout the river further downstream. We both grabbed our saws following a faint trail that quickly ended. Some other people must have had the same idea. We cut our way to the river only to find we couldn’t put a canoe in that spot. It was too steep to the river. Now that we walked this far I walked further down river and determined we could actually put in at the campsite. Back at the campsite we needed to cut back the alder along shore to safely launch the canoe. We finally started putting our gear in the canoe at 09:55 am.

We ran the turbulent water without any problems. There was another section of fast water that we ran.

The portage at Eskakwa Falls was immediately before the falls on river left. With this high water there was a very small opening. Don’t miss it. We hugged the left shore until we saw the opening and then paddled hard into the opening. (UTM #33) Just as we landed the canoe an eagle flew over head and landed in a tree just upstream. He was probably expecting a meal thinking we were fishing.

This portage was 90 meters long. The put-in (UTM #34) was down a slippery 5 meter sloping gouged out rock face.

There was a small campsite at the put-in. I saw a spot for maybe one four person tent. Although Dave told me he saw a spot for another tent further up that I didn’t see.

The portage at Snake Falls was on river left right up against the fast water. (UTM # 35) . Again, don’t over shoot this one, either. The portage was 113 meters with little recent use. There was a large Spruce tree blocking the portage about 30 meters from the take-out. We carried all the packs up to this point then started carrying one pack at a time from there to the put-in.

There was a campsite at the put-in. (UTM 36) The site is open and has a good view. There was enough room for two tents, but one tent site would need to work around a rock.

Since it was past lunch time, 1:02 pm, we stayed and ate at the campsite while watching the powerful water rushing by from the falls. The sky is still gray, but it keeps looking like it wants to clear up, but it never does. It still continues to mist. The wind has been blowing strong out of the north all day. It sure would be nice to have a sunny day!

This put-in was going to be tricky. There were large standing waves from the powerful falls that were traveling a kilometer downstream and pushing big waves to both shores at an angle. My game plan was to get in the canoe and try a surf the waves to the shore on river left then point the canoe downstream. This was much easier to say than actually doing it. It was about one kilometer down stream before I felt comfortable knowing we were going to make it.

The north wind was a big problem on Miminiska Lake. As soon as we hit the big open water we headed SW to seek some shelter from the wind and waves. We finally got into the big waves along the south shore. We came upon a peninsula and I decided to paddle to the lee side to get out of the wind. I really wanted to find a camping spot. The wind wasn’t letting up. We still had a ways to go to the west before we could get out of the big waves.

I should have looked at my map closer and I would have realized that we were just wasting our time getting out of the canoe to look for a spot. I talked Dave into it. It wasn’t easy getting the canoe close to shore. We needed to walk through some water just to get to the shore where there were some black spruce trees and more bog. We walked through the bog that was saturated with very cold water trying to find any high ground. The cold water was making my feet very cold and I was becoming chilled. There wasn’t any high ground. When I got back into the canoe, looking at the map, there wasn’t any high ground. Guess I should have looked at my map instead of just hoping to find higher ground.

Back into the canoe and back into the big waves.

Finally, at 06:13 pm we came across a small island that was used as a shore lunch site. There was a picnic table and a large propane burner. We decided to stay after determining we had enough room for two tents. (UTM #37). When we arrived at the island, the very small island, I was chilled to the bone. There wasn’t any firewood here, so we used the burner to cook. I took some photos of parts of the island that were under water.

The wind finally died down around 08:05 pm. I had changed into my wool long underwear and dry socks earlier to warm up. It was getting cooler as the night went on. I’m guessing it got down to 45 degrees. I ended up taking some photos of the sunset.

Day 10: Wednesday, 08-26-09

2009-12-27T16:30:00.002-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Albany River / Mininiska Lake

Albany River / Petawanga Lake

Travel Time: 4:23

Distance: 9.5 miles / 15.3 km

It got cool out last night. I pulled my head out of my sleeping bag around 06:32 am as it was starting to get light out.

This morning was one of the mornings that I regret not taking the time to get my tripod out of my pack and take some photos of the sunrise. I’ve never in my life had seen such a beautiful sunrise. There was an intense orange ribbon across the eastern sky. Then an intense orange area where the sun was coming up. My reason at the time was my gear was all wet and it was cold out. Dave also was in his tent on the east side of the small island where the better photographic opportunity was located.

There was also a fog over the water this morning with only a hint of a breeze. This morning I’m wearing my long underwear, my red and black checked wool shirt with my green REI fleece jacket. I also have on some wool knitted gloves.

I tried drying my Northface pants over the burner this morning while the coffee was perking, but the heat didn’t dry them. I’m wearing my Piragis pants that are ok around camp. They don’t have enough pockets for my liking. This was the second time I’ve worn them on this trip and both times were at night at camp. At least they’re dry.

This morning we’re on the water at 09:38 am. It wasn’t too long, 10:15 am, before we got to the marked 850 meter portage. (UTM #38)There were some floating docks that were partially under water. Just off to the left of this portage was another trail. I followed it and it led to some trash and an old 207 Snow Cruiser snowmobile.

It took 21 minutes to cross this portage the first time across. It seemed to quick for a 850 meter portage. Dave and I took a pack with our saws hand. We only had to do some minimal cutting. There were also two 12 inch aspen lying diagonally across the trail.

When we got to the end of the portage (UTM # 39) there were four aluminum boots cached. Two of them had Mercury outboards on them. There was also a very strong smell of gas in the air. These four boats were completely blocking our put-in. We lifted the side of one of the boats where we found several gas containers, but it was obvious the smell was more gas that has saturated the ground. There was some litter here. This landing and portage showed signs of frequent use.

Overall this was a good portage, but it was wet in many sections. There was wood cut and placed both crosswise and lengthwise in the real bad sections. The portage is probably kept open by the outpost nearby on Mininiska Lake. I stepped this portage off at 547 meters. The only sounds I heard while walking this trail were the sound of mosquitos. There was no wind making the bush very quiet.

I’m done with my three carries across, just waiting for Dave. It should only be a couple more minutes. The canoe was put in the water and loaded. Took a little maneuvering around before getting away from the put-in.

Petawanga Lake is another large lake, but luckily today there is virtually no wind. Many places on the water were just like glass.

We paddled until we found a campsite on a small island at 02:01 pm. (UTM #40) (3 x 2). The site showed signs of use this season.

After checking out the site we put up our tents. I hung some of my stuff up to dry, but then it began to sprinkle. I threw my sleeping bag and other important gear in the tent. Lucky for us there were just a few drops, but no real rain.

A helicopter flew over head a few minutes after we got on the island. Then two First Nation guides passed the island in the two aluminum boats that were parked at the last portage. They passed us without ever knowing we were on the island.

It’s 05:04 pm and I’ve been trying to get caught up in my journal while Dave has been tending to the fire. The wood is so damp it just doesn’t want to keep going. We were able to get some coffee perked around 03:30 pm and had lunch.

I went down and got water in the gravity filter. I forgot my bottle underneath it, so I had to go get some more water.

Earlier I walked around the small island after I got out my camera and took some photos.

Day 11: Thursday, 08-27-09

2009-12-27T16:30:00.001-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Albany River / Petawanga Lake
Petawa Creek

Travel Time: 11:52

Distance: 9.75 miles / 15.7 km

Each time I woke up last night I heard the sound of the waves lapping up on shore. It was cool out.

I woke up at 04:30 am, then 05:30 am, finally I started moving around at 05:36 am then I started packing up my stuff and getting dressed.

At 06:00 am I was out of my tent. I saw Dave’s light on in his tent, but I yelled to him anyways to make sure he was up. We wanted to get an earlier start today, since we were going to head upstream on the Petawa Creek and we knew it was going to be another long day.

The coffee is on and Dave’s cooking breakfast. The wind is coming out of the NE. It’s cool enough where I can see my breath this morning.

Just as we were finishing up breakfast it began to sprinkle. Now our tents were wet before we could pack them away. We left out campsite about a half hour earlier than we have been on the water so far. It was 09:08 am.

There was a strong NE wind as we paddled. It also rained on and off. It was 10:13 am when we made it to the mouth of the Petawa Creek. We stopped and took a few photos before we started our paddle and tracking up the creek.

We tracked the beginning of the creek. We never looked for any portage, but I had marked on my map a 340 meter on river right. I don’t know if that was good information or not. The way the water has been, high, we figured we would see how it went. It was slow going as the current was very strong, but only a little over our knees here at the start. It would get deeper.

It took us until 02:25 pm to get through the first part of the creek. A total of 6 kilometers of which 1.25 km was in the widening of the creek where it was easy to paddle. We had lunch in a blowdown area before the next narrow section of the creek. Sometime during our upstream walk in the creek it had turned sunny. The river water was cold, but at least we had warm air on our upper body. We were up to our waist in the majority of places and in the other areas the cold water crept up the belly. It was a different feel as the cold water crept up my stomach to my chest, since from the waist down my body was numb from walking in the creek for so long.

We were finished with lunch at 02:54 pm.

Dave was in the bow of the canoe so he did all the cutting of the sweepers as we tracked the canoe. This narrative doesn’t do justice to the number of sweepers that Dave had to cut to get us up the river. Finally, we had to cut a portage on river right below a large Tamarack tree across the creek. Above the Tamarack was a large black spruce. We cut a 25 meter portage around this area. Once back in the water Dave cut out another 12 inch diameter tree and countless others.

Eventually we came across a section of the creek that was completely block with trees. We found an old portage on river left, but we needed to cut our way through it. This was a 35 meter portage. This portage was about the 3rd set of rapids/fast water from Auger Creek. Oh, of course it’s easier to say where this is after the fact because on the ground it’s hard to know exactly where you. I’m sure if you get to this area your not going to say to yourself, oh, we must be at the 3rd set of rapids from Auger Lake.

The second half of Petawa Creek upstream of the widening in the creek had a steeper gradient making the water current faster therefore it had much force.There were more sweepers on this section than the lower section.

There was a considerable amount of trees that Dave needed to cut to keep us out of the real fast, powerful current. It was getting late when we finished cutting our way across this 35 meter portage. We paddled a short distance before we came to another area of fast water and trees blocking. It was late, 0900 pm, we were running out of daylight. We looked on river right at the bottom of the fast water where we bushwhacked two tent pads close to shore. My tent was in a patch of Labrador-tea among with alders. It was dark by the time we got our tents up. There was no time for coffee. We ate some gorp and a couple energy bars as we stood in our completely wet clothes around the food pack before we each went to our tent.

My clothes were completely wet and I was chilled to the bone. I sat in my tent with my legs hanging out while I took off my boots, pants, and underpants. I put on some dry clothes. I left my thin wool long underwear shirt on that only felt damp. I put on another medium weight wool shirt over it. I was hoping the thinner one would dry from my body heat if I ever got warm.

I crawled into my sleeping bad. I had some dry light weight socks on, but my feet were still cold and numb. I grabbed some more socks and put them on. That didn’t seem to work so a grabbed my headlamp and dug deeper into my dry bag looking for some heavier wool socks. I could see my breath so the temperature was in the 40‘s.

The area underneath where my head was on raised ground. Not high enough so I could just lay my head down and with my pillow it was too high. I also noticed that I didn’t attach the clips on the outside of the top part of my tent to the frame. The ceiling of the tent was hanging down low.

It took a while for me to get warm, but I dreaded the thought of getting up in the morning and having to put on my cold, wet clothing. Then the thought of immediately walking in the creek to get to Auger Lake. This area where we put our tents was UTM #41.

Day 12: Friday, 08-28-09

2009-12-27T16:29:00.000-08:00

Lakes / Rivers Traveled:

Petawa Creek
Auger Lake

Travel Time: 5:06

Distance: 6.3 miles / 10.1 km

I tossed and turned most of the night between the lumps underneath the tent floor. I could hear the sound of rushing water. My tent was very wet inside since it rained yesterday morning before I was able to pack it away.

When it began to get light out I didn’t want to look at my watch to see what time it was, but I knew it was about time. Although I felt like getting up I would wait until I heard Dave moving about in his tent. I knew we weren’t going to have a fire this morning so I didn’t want to just stand around. My sleeping bag was my friend this morning.

Eventually I got out of the tent at 07:00 am when I noticed there were some parts of the tent that were frozen. Dave couldn’t get his maps out of his map case because they were frozen.

When I got up I put on dry clothes in an attempt to stay warm, Dave put on his wet stuff.

This morning we made coffee on the stove as well as the oatmeal. We stood around the stove watching our breathe while we spoke.

Finally I needed to put on my wet clothes and boots. It wasn’t as bad as I thought it was going to be, but it wasn’t good either.

It was 10:05 am and we were on the water. I really should say, in the water. Well, the water felt warmer than the air temperature.

It took us one hour and five minutes for us to get to the portage to Auger Lake. Before we got there Dave had cut his thumb badly with the Corona pruning saw while cutting some sweepers. The blood was flowing while Dave continued to cut. He would then stop take a look at his thumb, then back to cutting. He really needed some stitches, but....

The sun has been trying to come out this morning through a thin layer of gray clouds. Eventually it made an appearance. Actually it ended up being a pleasant day.

The beginning of the creek before Auger Lake actually showed signs that the water level was dropping some, but it was still high.

We found a portage on river right as Dave and I had it marked. We had other information that it was on river left. We did check the right side first and found evidence of a trail, but there weren’t any blazes.

Dave found a trout lure at the beginning of the portage. (UTM # 42) It was still in the paper container. Dave thought it might have been dropped by a guy named Rick who travelled through this area in 2007. He abandon his trip when he got to Auger Lake. Rick was the last person we were aware of who went up the Petawa Creek. There were no recent signs of use on the Petawa Creek in the last two seasons. There wasn’t any recent saw work.

We cleared the trail, but like I said there weren’t any old blazes. We saw other evidence of some old saw cuts. I took some photos of the take-out. The put-in at / near Auger Lake was UTM # 43. This portage was 78 meters long.

It took us 14 hours to get up the Petawa Creek. This creek is about 10 kilometers long. We walked hours in the water at a time while Dave cut sweepers, sometimes we would paddle only 10 to 20 meters in some areas where it was too deep to walk, we moved to each side of the creek depending what obstructions we saw ahead of us. This section took a tremendous amount of work to get up it. When Dave cut the sweepers he would use his saw in his right hand while holding the bow of the canoe with his left. Sometimes I had to stand clear of the larger trees that Dave cut as they tossed and turned while going downstream.

We decided to have lunch at a nice site, lots of rocks. (UTM #44). Dave told me there was enough room for a one four person tent. This site has been used as a shore lunch site as well. We ate lunch from 01:30 pm to 02:05 pm. It was sunny out for a while, but now the sun disappeared. Hopefully it will emerge again soon.

I don’t know what it is about people who think they need to put a pop can at the end of branches, but we found another one here.

I realized this morning that I didn’t have my tan baseball style cap. The more I’ve been thinking about it I think I lost it at the last portage before our bushwhacked campsite.

We saw two guys sitting in an aluminum boat next to an island further down on Auger Lake. Mattice Lake Outfitter’s have an outpost on this lake. We paddled up to them and talked a few minutes. We asked them to tell Mattice Lake Outfitter’s of our location when they called them to check in. We explained to these two guys that Mattice Lake have our itinerary so we wanted them to know our last known location. They said they would, but later we found out they never did let Mattice Lake Outfitter’s know our location.

We continued past the outpost that’s in the lower third of the lake when we saw two more guys fishing in a boat near the dock.

We paddled a couple more kilometers out of sight of the outpost when we found an area to make camp. We pulled in at 03:11 pm. We stopped early today since it was nice out and there was some sun to dry our gear. Plus the fact it was a decent place to camp. It was a good day to do all of that. We both were able to get caught up documenting information on our maps.

This site hasn’t had any activity of any one camped on it in a long time. The fire rocks have lichen on them. The area where I have my tent isn’t too level. I thought it was going to be nice and soft, but I found some metal cans underneath the moss. I found several cans that I removed from underneath the tent. Believe it or not I missed one that’s right under my butt. When I’m done writing I’ll have to work around it for sleeping.

For dinner Dave cooked up some summer sausage and tortellini. Then Dave cooked up one big blueberry muffin. We each had half. Well, it’s 09:16 pm and time for sleep. The bugs and mosquitos are back after last nights frost.