July 27, camp 22, sunrise at 5:06 a.m., a bit ruby-tinged from distant forest fire smoke.
Because the sun gets up later now as the season progresses, I reset Wilson to wake me at 3:30 instead of 3 a.m. I eat breakfast in the canvas Tent by the light of a candle.
At the outlet of "unnamed lake 1", the grass on the 90 metre trail is really tall so I have to be careful when carrying the portage loads to avoid a misstep. Thinking I might be able to canoe down the upper rapids instead of using the portage I cut in June, inspection reveals too many short turns around big boulders. I do not think I could even wade the canoe down without getting hung up.
After running the rapids below the portage, I canoe to the inlet of the large lake below the falls to pre-portage the two heavy barrels. Because I have extra time I am going to portage above the two km stretch of waterfalls to spend some time there. On the first uphill carry of the 1430 metre trail, I also take the bow saw and leather mitts. There are some hard to navigate trees across the trail, but I "barrel" through and deal with them on my return walk, sawing 10 trees. There has been foot traffic to view the falls, but no apparent equipment carries at the head of the trail where I have to saw several medium-size fallen spruce both live and dead across the path. This upper portion is getting overgrown with small alder and birch trees and the lower trail with new pines growing thickly since the fire of 2010. The latter are two metres tall but there have been enough people walking that the path is free but narrow. It is 11:30 a.m. by the time I have portaged the first load, cleared the trail just enough to get gear through and carried the second barrel. Hungry and sweat-soaked I hang some clothes to dry and have a lunch fire at the base of the trail.
Canoeing the one km to previous camp 2, I erect the canvas Tent, but not the stove as the temperature is 22℃. In bed at 9:30 p.m., the latest in a long time, steady heavy rain starts at midnight and continues all night.
July 28, awake to very strong wind accompanied by continuous rain until 10 a.m. From my journal: "Awake at 5 a.m., up at 6 a.m. Get firepit fire going with some extra work - cause I didn't cache birch bark tinder and kindling. It was late, I was tired, mosquitoes bad ... blah, blah, blah. No excuses. Would have saved a lot of time this morn. Went and fetched a dead birch tree and then removed bark cylinders. Tore apart a large stump for kindling. Mossy branches of no value - soaking wet. Kind of like the movies where the cowboy looks after his horse before himself. In this case, making sure camp complete before I retire - Tent, tarp shelter, fire essentials. And I usually do. Aie!" Still thinking I am going to cook outside, wearing raincoat and getting wetter, finally I decide to erect the stove, which is easy to start with embers from the firepit. When I go to the lakeshore to fetch water I am surprised by how much the water has risen. It is now above the rock dock I built on arrival yesterday, rolling rocks into a mound from the canoe before pulling it onshore. From my journal: "Water another important item to get the night before as sometimes the wind is driving waves onshore later." Shortly after eating a hot cinnamon bannock breakfast, I eat lunch, both very welcome, having expended a lot of calories since leaving yesterday's camp. In the afternoon, temperature rises to 17℃ with lots of mosquitoes in Tent so I take down stove, start firepit fire from the coals and burn a mosquito coil in the closed Tent. To bed by 7:30 p.m. after supper, getting too dark in the Tent to read well.
After running the rapids below the portage, I canoe to the inlet of the large lake below the falls to pre-portage the two heavy barrels. Because I have extra time I am going to portage above the two km stretch of waterfalls to spend some time there. On the first uphill carry of the 1430 metre trail, I also take the bow saw and leather mitts. There are some hard to navigate trees across the trail, but I "barrel" through and deal with them on my return walk, sawing 10 trees. There has been foot traffic to view the falls, but no apparent equipment carries at the head of the trail where I have to saw several medium-size fallen spruce both live and dead across the path. This upper portion is getting overgrown with small alder and birch trees and the lower trail with new pines growing thickly since the fire of 2010. The latter are two metres tall but there have been enough people walking that the path is free but narrow. It is 11:30 a.m. by the time I have portaged the first load, cleared the trail just enough to get gear through and carried the second barrel. Hungry and sweat-soaked I hang some clothes to dry and have a lunch fire at the base of the trail.
Canoeing the one km to previous camp 2, I erect the canvas Tent, but not the stove as the temperature is 22℃. In bed at 9:30 p.m., the latest in a long time, steady heavy rain starts at midnight and continues all night.
July 28, awake to very strong wind accompanied by continuous rain until 10 a.m. From my journal: "Awake at 5 a.m., up at 6 a.m. Get firepit fire going with some extra work - cause I didn't cache birch bark tinder and kindling. It was late, I was tired, mosquitoes bad ... blah, blah, blah. No excuses. Would have saved a lot of time this morn. Went and fetched a dead birch tree and then removed bark cylinders. Tore apart a large stump for kindling. Mossy branches of no value - soaking wet. Kind of like the movies where the cowboy looks after his horse before himself. In this case, making sure camp complete before I retire - Tent, tarp shelter, fire essentials. And I usually do. Aie!" Still thinking I am going to cook outside, wearing raincoat and getting wetter, finally I decide to erect the stove, which is easy to start with embers from the firepit. When I go to the lakeshore to fetch water I am surprised by how much the water has risen. It is now above the rock dock I built on arrival yesterday, rolling rocks into a mound from the canoe before pulling it onshore. From my journal: "Water another important item to get the night before as sometimes the wind is driving waves onshore later." Shortly after eating a hot cinnamon bannock breakfast, I eat lunch, both very welcome, having expended a lot of calories since leaving yesterday's camp. In the afternoon, temperature rises to 17℃ with lots of mosquitoes in Tent so I take down stove, start firepit fire from the coals and burn a mosquito coil in the closed Tent. To bed by 7:30 p.m. after supper, getting too dark in the Tent to read well.
July 29, camp 23 (old camp 2) is five km from the previous camp, including the 90 metre portage. This is on the long lake directly connected to where I started in June and to where I will return in September. Resting on a bed of spruce boughs which provides a clean dry table and work area, I am sitting near a warming fire to eat breakfast because the temperature is a cool 4℃ with heavy fog.
July 29, I canoe one km to the upper end of the big lake to see if I can get up the rapids below the falls to try for walleye and to see if there is a suitable campsite if the fishing is good. The outlet flow is too strong to paddle up, but after scouting several spots, I cut a 110 metre trail across the pine covered rock to come out just above the lower rapids. It takes 1½ hours in the presence of bothersome blackflies, which did a number on my ears before I donned the hat scarf. Once across the portage, I launch the canoe and paddle hard to make my way up the rapids far enough to get in some slower water, then paddle as far as I can, not quite as far as the lowermost falls, stopped by another rapids that I cannot paddle up or get around. I try fishing in several spots with no luck, not even a bite. It is disappointing because I really thought there should be walleye here. C'est la vie. The copse of tall spruce trees spared by the fire of 2010 is not suitable as a campsite, too uneven and boulder strewn. So I have cut a portage that I will only use once, one way only, but at least I satisfy my curiosity about the fishing and the campsite.
After canoeing down the rapids into the big lake, I stop at the base of the long portage to have lunch with a small fire to boil water and shoo blackflies. Then I pick two salads of fireweed plus some mostly green lingonberries and blueberries. Canoeing down the lake along the shore I catch a pike and a walleye in short order, the latter unexpected but wonderful. A full pan of fried walleye for supper, and fried pike to put in the cooler for tomorrow's meal.
Evening sunset July 29, very cloudy, as it was all day, but I pre-pack planning to move on tomorrow.