South Hegman
by SevenofNine
We had a brutal first day for the start of our adventure. It actually started the night before when we tried to sleep in the car at the entrance point. Not enough room and the wife was cold as it rained all night. And it rained almost all day the next day when we went in.
We had to hide the kayak as Scott brought it after being told I only wanted to use the canoe. My wife couldn't paddle as she injured her arm the day before the trip. We did a decent job of camouflaging the kayak and no one bothered it.
The 1/4 mile portage is a breeze and the trail is in good shape. We double portaged since there was a lot of little stuff we bought at the last minute and I had to carry my wife's pack since she injured her arm. No problems except the rain made things miserable and slick.
After portaging all our gear we loaded and set off. However, as we got on the water the canoe felt really unstable. I had brought my solo canoe so this would be a challenge for it. I think it was because my wife was crouching instead of sitting on the canoe floor. Once we gave my pack to my buddy and my wife sat down we were good.
Thankfully there should be no more portaging unless all the campsites are taken! Hopefully we can find on on Hegman because the wind and the rain are a blowing. We pass by what must be the first campsite near the entry but I can't make out any fire grate. So we move on to the channel and the other part of the lake.
By the time we reached our campsite everyone is tired and ready to be off the water. The rain was driving and tough to deal with but we had breaks in the rain to put up our tent.
We rigged up a tarp and took shelter under it. It took forever to rig the tarp with ropes but once we got it done and added a paddle as a tent pole we had a nice area out of the rain.
Love having a tarp in the rain today. We really needed it and thankfully we rigged it up right for the three of us.
We collected fire wood from a beaver dam in a bay near by. It's really fun collecting firewood in the rain. My buddy got on shore since he has chest waders on. He would pick up beaver wood and toss it towards the canoe. If we were lucky the wood would float and act as a torpedo towards the boat. If we were unlucky the wood simply torpedoed into the lake bottom which more than not this day happens with all the rain we had the previous day and today. When we got back to camp we put it under the tarp to dry and it turned out to be a smart move.
My buddy decides he wants to try a fire after the clouds stop raining and it looks like its going to clear. I think he's nuts but I'm not going to stop a man on a mission. Amazing but he got it going and with our help feeding it we got a decent fire going.
It cleared up enough to see the stars and we really enjoyed the fire. Thanks to Scott for being dedicated to fire! My wife was your typical fire feeder, playing with it and of course adding wood constantly.
Recap, it got cold tonight as well as the next. There were strong winds today and we could watch the wind push the rain through the channel we were near. We would have gorgeous Fall days the next couple days.
All the hard work in planning and getting to our campsite was well worth it over the coming days.