Early morning not at all promising, but I decide to leave anyway. I have long ago given up on predicting weather.
300 metre portage up a steep hill, but this winter trapline trail needs very little clearing. Unfortunately the trail ends at very shallow water in an old beaver canal, not deep enough to float the canoe empty let alone when loaded. By the time I haul the gear to the upper end of the portage, it is raining. Then I have to figure out how to get out to deeper water. Aie!
There was no way to walk out on the floating humps of grass and willows far enough to reach bigger water. I cut another three metre pole, a spruce tree this time, and poled the empty canoe out to deeper water to make sure it was doable. Even with the empty canoe it was a challenge, especially because there was a right angle turn in the narrow beaver canal that led to the incoming "beaver creek". (The next lake emptied here into an unnavigable creek with an active beaver dam across it, flowing parallel to the lake I just came from before looping to empty into it.) I had to pole out 40 metres to the right angle bend, then get out of the canoe on a squishy mound of wet "shore", then push, pull, lift, line, tow the canoe around the corner and then pole again ... but I did finally reach more open water in the "beaver creek". Meanwhile it was raining steadily. Aie! Once I confirmed that my plan would work, I poled back to the mound and reversed the above process. However the problem was I would not be able to pole the canoe with any load in it all the way from shore to the mound. So the next step was to cut a 20 metre trail around the first part of the beaver canal across wet spongy ground to a place where I could load the canoe and pole the remaining 20 metres to the mound. I then carried 1/4 of the gear at a time to the canoe and poled to the mound where I unloaded on the ground. Then poled the empty canoe back and repeated the process until all the gear was on the mound. We are all getting wetter ... me and the gear. Now I turn the canoe around the right angle, reload and pole out.
Finally I reach the next lake and can actually sit down and paddle. (Poling is done standing up in the canoe.) I check several possible camp sites and settle on one.
Camp 32, after travelling five km, including four km searching for a camp site, two portages (300 and 40 metres), and 200 metres of "beaver creek" with three beaver dams.
The canoe pole continued to serve ... as a fireplace stick and as a pole to hold the tarp shelter up. Strangely, I had an emotional connection with each of the canoe poles I used and did say a fond goodbye to each.
I found two pine mushrooms and cooked them in the Dutch oven (on the left) to eat with pike. The country travelled is not suited for this mushroom which typically grows in sandy soil beneath jack pines, so it was nice to get a taste.
A late supper and washcloth bath. I only travelled a distance of one km as the raven flies, but it was a long day! Supper and bed never felt so good.