Wednesday, June 08, 2011:
Metacryst Lake to Sark Lake, via Cutty Lake. (About 6 Miles) 2 portages: 30 rods (written on old Fisher map) & 560m.

We had decided – yesterday I think – that we would exit Metacryst via the portage to Cutty and take the difficult portage from Cutty to Sark. We agreed that it would be better/faster than going up to Heronshaw and down through Cairn. I looked out of the tent at 5a.m. and it was gray as the evening before but not raining. We finally were up and having another “hot nuggets” breakfast at 7:15 and left at 9:00. We paddled down the long southwest arm of Metacryst into a little breeze and found the portage landing. The 30 rods – if that’s what it was – was pretty easy and we made good time.
Once on Cutty we stopped for a break and snack (we consumed an enormous amount of trail mix and other snacks on this trip) at a campsite that was rated “1-star” online and called a “scraggly” site. I took some photos of this site and documented another widowmaker. I’ve never seen so many! After consulting the map and getting a bearing, we headed in the direction of the next portage. With gray conditions it was hard to tell what was a point or a far shore. We negotiated a couple of ninety-degree turns and aimed for the water’s end and found the takeout.
Forewarned that this end of the portage could be a mud bath, we power-paddled ourselves to within about one canoe length of solid ground. Joe was able to get out of the bow in just a little muck and I probably got my ankles muddy. Not bad. The notation made at home on my map here says “difficult: 3 hard ups & downs w/logs over muck.” We started out, me in front with a pack and Joe following with the canoe. We did three ups and downs, then at a nice spot at the top of one hill, I called for a “leapfrog” and we put the gear down and recovered a little on the way back for the second load.
This turned out to be a good call for us mainly because Joe would be more “fresh” for the bog on the second leg than if we’d gone straight through. Joe’s portage notes compiled online beforehand mentioned something about not taking spur trails and looking for a “bear cave,” but we saw neither. After a brief rest and a long drink we were on our way down a narrow channel heading south. Entering the “main” arm of Sark we spotted a legacy campsite on a skinny point on the east shore and stopped for a late lunch. We had a foil pack of salmon mixed with some mayo packets and spread on tortilla pieces. (Note: this “campsite” had a crude fireplace and no place for a tent that we could see – PCD site 507.)
As we finished eating, it finally began to rain. We paddled south with a little tail wind and made good time down the skinny arm of Sark. Such good time that, with me daydreaming I suppose, we starting running out of lake. (In my defense I couldn’t believe we did almost three miles so fast.) Anyway, we had decided earlier to check out the campsites in the big bay at southwestern Sark (since we had no leads on sites on Keefer) and now had to turn around and paddle for about ½ mile into a stiff northwest breeze to reach the “4.5-star” site on a small island. By now it had stopped raining and clearer skies looked likely.
Stopping here would make this a pretty short day – especially in terms of portaging -- but before the trip we had hoped for a layover day, which now looked out of the question, so we thought we deserved at least one “easy” day. In addition, we would face the Kahshahpiwi to McNiece portage tomorrow and we wanted to be fresh as possible for that, so stopping made good sense. In addition, the large-scale maps I had left a “gap” of coverage for northern Keefer and as far as we knew there were no campsites for quite a ways south. (We did have the smaller-scale Chrismar park map along.)
This campsite (PCD #193) was definitely one you’d like to spend some time at. It had a decent landing with a short “portage” up 20 foot or so in elevation to the main area where a very good fireplace with a rock shield and good old seating tarp/tent options are found. Climbing up a narrow slot in a granite wall is an upper level good for sanitation/dishwashing, etc. The whole small island is accessible and much of it is open pine duff footing. Pretty nice overall, but of course there had to be the red pine widowmaker again! (There was another fireplace north of our area, but I'm not sure about tentpads there.)
The sky kept changing our guesses on the coming weather and we had no NOAA reception as we set up camp and went about getting ready for supper. By now we were getting very efficient at both making and breaking camps (as well as portaging and dealing with difficult put-ins and takeouts). We put up the tent and rigged the silnylon tarp just in front of the tent so we could more easily deal with wet packing if necessary. I got in the tent to set up my pad and bag and laid down and almost fell asleep, but after 20 minutes or so I decided I’d probably be sorry tonight it I slept now.
Supper was one of our favorites, “Old Mike’s Rice” (foil packed chicken, instant rice, bouillon, diced jalapenos and pepper jack cheese). After supper the sky brightened some and around 8 p.m. the sun tried to peek through a little and I took some pictures of the camp and views of the neat bay we were in. It occurred to me then that this would make a great base camp. After camp chores were finished and our ration of grog and cigars were finished I tried to hit the tent a little earlier than Joe, but wound up getting to sleep about the same time as usual – late.