Camp 13 location viewed from its unnamed lake 9.6. This is the only good campsite on the one km long lake. For that matter it is the only good side within a few km even on the main lake (on the other side of the eight metre portage where I parked the motorboat while cutting the long portage).
Camp 13, July 13 a nice start to the day. Note the location of the fair-weather fireplace on the lake side of the large boulder.
Looking up unnamed lake 9.6 across the fireplace towards the portage to unnamed lake 10 (on the right hand shore around the far corner).
A clump of lingonberry, not quite ripe, provides one serving of fruit.
A red currant bush, mostly ripe, yields three servings.
Fireweed to pick for several meals.
A hole dug into the ground as a "fridge" for the two coolers containing butter (454g block per week), covered with a thick layer of small spruce trees. This area has no moss after the forest fire of 2010.
July 13, 6 p.m., a marked change in weather.
The view up the lake but now in the rain.
July 14, 7 a.m., the fireplace moved to the inland side of the big boulder closer to the Tarp shelter because of the rain.
Burning a seemingly endless supply of wood. The belt bags hang in the tree near the fireplace to attempt to dry them in between rain showers.
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Summary:
Brian takes me to the eight metre portage to continue canoeing. Set up camp 13, and then it starts to rain, rain, rain Aie! Aie! Aie!
July 13:
Up by 5 a.m. at camp 12, later than for most departures, I have a leisurely hot bannock breakfast in the company of a few bothersome mosquitoes. The sky does not look promising but clearing at the horizon is encouraging with a light wind from that direction. One of my squirrels greets me outside, then rushes back up the cabin wall to safety. A merganser as usual is surprised by me at the beach and flies away, quacking madly. There is some more water to bail from the boat, then I return the sponge and gas tank to the stern. I sure hope Brian is right when he says no water can enter the tank even though the locking cap is one click back from tight. I wonder if it would be safer on parking to tighten the cap and loosen on use? Load boat with all my gear, sweep cabin floor one last time, return cabin items to their original places, fill firepit and "fridge" holes. As always when leaving every camp, I say goodbye out loud, including to my squirrels "You've been a good campsite, maybe see you again some day." I travel to the lodge by 10 a.m., so Brian can drive me to the eight metre portage.
The plan had been for Brian to take me in "my" boat, but he confirms that the reverse gear is not working properly. There could be a cog missing from the gear. This happened when I backed into rocks the last day at the portage without shutting the motor off quick enough (and not reversing far enough away from shore before turning). Of course I know better now, but too late for the motor. Brian is calm about the mishap, even though I know he must be disappointed, and we move my gear to a different boat. I give my contact information and we make arrangements for compensation to occur when I return home. [As it turns out later, Brian determines that the gear is okay, just the connecting mechanism needs adjusting so payment required is considerably less.] At the next camp I text Jeanette by satellite phone how much I owe Brian and will explain later (in case for some reason I do not make it home). [When I started wilderness canoeing for up to six months a year in 2010, we arranged that Jeanette has full power-of-attorney for me in case I fail to return, the problem estate-wise being it can take many years to declare death without a body. As the lawyer said "I think you are crazy (being remotely alone for such a long period); but when you have complete trust in the other party, I would do the same thing because I trust my wife."]
As I canoe up the short distance of one half km on unnamed lake 9.6 to reach camp 13, I am having an inner debate. My younger self says "Let's portage today, I'm anxious to get to the target river."; the older self says "Aie! Crazy talk! Need a full day to portage and find a campsite." [I still wonder when that debate will cease to occur; perhaps that is when it is time to hang up my paddle. It seems no matter, so far, how old I get, I still think I can do "anything", but definitely plan better and am more methodical and "more" careful (an oxymoron really, careful is careful; when younger I was "less" careful).] Upon landing I start a fire to shoo the very bothersome blackflies. Then I park canoe, erect tent and store gear. I just put up the Tarp shelter followed by a brief rain shower, then two more, as storm clouds move through. By 2:30 p.m. I am eating lunch. Temperature is 21°C with a very strong wind, cloudy but still with some sun shining through. The wind keeps most bugs at bay. Before supper at 5 p.m., I lay out sleep gear in the tent. During supper the sky becomes very cloudy and thunder advances my way, so before the rain arrives, I wash dishes, empty pots and dry on coals to prepack for moving on tomorrow. After extinguishing the fire, I am in tent by 6:30 p.m. to update my journal and do some puzzles. The storm passes over, so Jeanette's forecast may be right about showers, which is what I had today. Falling asleep sitting in my chair, I have Garth Brooks' song "The Thunder Rolls" stuck, the tune rolling through my head since the thunder started. By 8 p.m. I am in bed, and rain starts, the wind has died down a lot. From my journal: "Heavy rain! Aie! My bed slopes down, but it works okay. Don't sleep well ... thinking of ruined motor, bears ... Is the target river passable? Do I have enough food? Is it ever going to stop raining? Aie!"
July 14:
[Note to reader. In the margin of my July 14 journal I wrote: "rain rain rain Aie! Aie! Aie!" Reading today's entry at home, I am somewhat taken aback by how much I used the rain and Aie words, but it does represent how I was feeling at the time. A bit frustrated at the very least, not so much with this specific camp's rainfall, but how the entire season has gone and seems to be progressing. In my journal, rain is hand-written uppercase RAIN, so it stands out even more, but I do not want to shout too loudly at the reader so here it is just bolded italics.]
After heavy rainfall all last night, I awake at 3 a.m. to go outside to check the sky which is completely overcast, still lightly raining. After emptying the full pee can, I go back to bed until arising at 5 a.m. to a very wet world, 15°C, steady light misty rain. No way am I travelling today! From my journal: "8:30 a.m., breakfast ... finally! Have spent most of the morning so far hauling wood to burn, the big stuff. The very first thing I check on arising is the Kitchen Barrel under the Tarp shelter just a few metres away from the tent to make sure it is okay, being a bit paranoid now about bears. When I get up, I hear an animal of some sort in the direction of the coolers so walk there but thank goodness the spruce branches on top are undisturbed; I see a loon nearby in the lake and think he was probably the cause of the noise. To get some warmth and maybe dryness under the shelter, I make a second fireplace with a large ring of stones, big enough to burn big wood. It is on the inshore side of the big boulder used for the first fireplace, closer to the Tarp, about two metres away. Because I prepacked the Kitchen Barrel last night have to dig out pots again. But first start fire. There's some dry wood under the top of the small pile I made yesterday, plus some kindling under the Tarp shelter. Thank goodness I brought birch bark from the cabin (though could use Vaseline®'d cotton balls I carry as backup). My first attempt fails to keep burning as I don't feed fire with enough small twigs; they don't break off the branch I have, but use the pruner which works well, always learning something new. In a lull in the drizzle, I start to eat breakfast outside the Tarp, but it begins again so move back under the shelter. Have to get more wood. Cut a big trunk and root to place on fire. Clear small brush with the pruner to create a path so I don't get constantly wet (wetter) from rubbing against the branches when I'm collecting firewood. Clear wet brush from a path to the old beaver lodge, my canoe landing, where I collect some of the seasoned wood for firewood, leaving enough so I don't fall through. Can see the raised bed where the beavers lived above the water level. Cut about 100 small spruce to make a bed of boughs between the Tarp and new fireplace; even though the branches are wet, they make for a clean mat on the soaked mostly bare ground. My leather mitts are quite wet so lay them on the front fireplace stones to dry a bit. These are a new pair of mitts, because I stupidly left my in-use set at the cabin. At first I think squirrels took them, but then I remember exactly where I set them down, on the corner cabin logs beside the 'fridge' hole. Aie! Should have taken them back to the cabin or put them on! Big mistake; should know better. I do have a spare set but they are for when the old ones wear out. 8:55 a.m., just start puzzle and it's raining harder again ... oh, but just a shower as the wind keeps chasing black clouds across the sky with new ones all the way to the horizon. Need to get more wood to keep the fire ahead of the rain. I'm sweaty in the inner layers of clothing and damp from the rain and bushes on the outer. 9:25 a.m., just fetched some more big wood and it's raining hard! Aie! Time to continue puzzle. 9:40 a.m., raining harder! Aie! Just when I was going to go out to the bathroom! Aie! 10 a.m., raining even harder! Aie! Good thing I have a large log on top of fire or would have to fetch more wood, which I still might have to do yet! Aie! Falling asleep doing puzzle. 10:05 a.m., okay, rain lessens to a mist again. Time get more wood! 10:35 a.m., doesn't matter how much wood I get, never enough! Really big stuff now. [I am using forest-fire-killed down wood from the dense thickets of new growth pine, spruce, birch and alder.] 11:05, Lunch time with hot boiled water which hits the spot. 12 noon, a bit of sun for a few minutes, and now pouring rain again. Aie! Get leather mitts mostly dry, resting on pots next to fireplace on leeward side so they don't get charred. [The problem is once the mitts are wet they are not just uncomfortable, but can stretch and tear, especially new ones.] 12:10 p.m., more puzzle done. Break in rain; I have a hole with my BM name on it where I removed a stone from the ground between the Tarp and the nearby tent, so will bury it well! 12:15 p.m., just made it back, pouring rain again! Pants reasonably dry, mostly from being near the fire enough, shirts drying on me. 12:45 p.m., some sunshine, a little blue sky. Puzzle, Reader's Digest. 12:50 p.m., rain again. 1:25 p.m., Bring more firewood; 'Should' be enough (not). Skies brightening but still some very dark clouds. Moderate wind, smoke eddies sometimes in the opposite direction. 1:35 p.m., rain. Sky not so blue now. Aie! Will prepack tonight again anyway. 2 p.m., no blue sky, very strong wind. Rain. 21°C under tarp, with some heat from fireplace. Pouring heavy heavy rain! Aie! Coming down at a slant because of wind so getting some drift under Tarp. Calculate new weights of portage loads, and how many carries there will be. Will be able to do the carries without having to take Rubber Pack with canoe. There will be five carries, down from the original seven, the only benefit of the absent canvas tent and stove and the missing barrel of grub, and one quarter of food in Barrel-2 used. Estimated total weight 190 kg (420 lb), down significantly from the original 286 kg (630 lb). [I have a checklist in my Writing Bag that includes the weight of my gear at the start of the trip, important information if ever having to fly out.] 3:40 p.m., hate to jinx it but lots blue sky and mostly white cloud. Still strong wind same direction. Supper will be: mint, hot water, oriental noodles (with parmesan cheese, butter), pepperoni, red currants, Birthday Cake protein bar. Hungry! (which is why adding butter to the noodles which I don't usually do because there is 'enough' fat included in the pasta itself). Not sure if eating enough. No fish in this lake; would have to canoe back to the big lake, which I will do if here another day, though certainly too windy to do now. I could walk, with difficulty, to the eight metre portage but fishing at the shore into the wind would be nonproductive. It might be good fishing, just not good catching. Fish tend to be in a protected lee, not in a wind driven shoreline. 4:45 p.m., finished supper. Speaking of jinxing, a heavy rain just came through on the wind, blue skies turning to dark, but more blue sky now. I think as long as that wind keeps blowing from the same direction, it seems to bring rain. More puzzles. Meal makes me sweat so take off long shirt and hat. Will have washcloth wash after dishes done. Yeah ... finally finished a 'hard' sudoku that I've been working on for several days. 4:55 p.m., time to do teeth, dishes, washcloth wash, prepack Kitchen Barrel, prepack tools. 5:45 p.m., chores done. Has rained twice more. Black sky pushes blue sky away. Put last big log on fire. 6:25 p.m., Reader's Digest. Rain again! Still strong wind, very cloudy, 18°C. 6:40 p.m., puzzle. Time pack up and go to tent. Will take chair to sit for awhile (instead of prepacking it). The advantage of the strong wind is that it dries tent and underbrush ... if it would just stop raining. 7:20 p.m., sitting in tent, 20°C, ablutions done. Kill one mosquito that snuck in. 7:45 p.m., more Reader's Digest. Falling asleep. Going to bed. Put Rubber Pack at base of sleeping bag to keep me from sliding down the sloped tent floor. As I fall asleep, I think about my mistakes this trip. Second nature to second guess oneself ... if I had abandoned canoe trip when Canvas Tent failed; if I had kept Food Pack in tent vestibule; if I had not pre-portaged the barrel that the bear took; if I had shut off boat motor sooner before gear damaged. C'est la vie. We learn not to make mistakes ... by making mistakes. Sleep well. Very strong wind all night. Good in that it dries tent and underbrush, good for portaging."