Next morning it was overcast but my mission was to put in and make it to Mug Lake to find the waterfall there and camp on Wine. So off I went.

I’m now heading south into Bug L with a slight headwind (of course!). Bug is a pretty lake that surprises me there are no designated campsites. It turns west and narrows:

It was amazingly quiet and peaceful. I eventually came upon a pull up beaver dam at about 3 ft high:

The 135 r to Louse was very, very rough. It didn’t feel like anyone had traversed it in quite a while. A light rain began and I found myself leap frogging, mostly so I wouldn’t lose my way back as it was many times hard to distinguish where the trail was. Here is the landing:

I'm on Louse and guess what? Another head wind!!! I’m traveling east now. How is this possible? It brings up the old adage that if you’re paddling into a headwind you are going the right way. Another song idea there. Louse was pretty, but with the light rain and wind, I couldn’t stop to take pics. “We Have All Day” wasn’t working here, sorry. Just as I reached the landing at the end of Louse, the wind and rain stopped. Thanks a lot.

Now maybe I’m a wus. Maybe I’m still worn out from the Lujineda portage and all subsequent overgrown, hard to find portages afterward, but I have to say that the 80 rod portage from Louse into Poe is the absolute worst, most difficult hard to walk trails I have ever done. Mostly large wet boulders with dangerous balancing and crevices. I leap frogged it and had a huge sense of accomplishment when it was over.

Off to Mug L. Simple portage, absolutely beautiful little lake:

Mug is small but laced with lots of palisade cliffs and stone. In fact, I had the feeling of sacredness here and was surprised there were no pictographs. I found the waterfall which by now was only a trickle:

I would imagine it to be at least 40 ft high and quite beautiful in the spring run-offs.

Time to find my way to Wine. Here is where the big mistakes get made. I misread the map to read that the portage trail to Wine was right by the falls. Straight up. A goat trail!! Why didn’t Old Scout and others tell me about this? Thinking this couldn’t be right, I scouted up the goat trail to find it end at a pond. Looking at my F-12 it did, indeed, show the trail crossing in a pond. Wow. This is a rough SOB not only straight up but who knows what’s on the other side of the pond? But the Fisher said so, so here I go.

After much difficulty and such, I got my canoe and gear on the pond and paddled across. Is this the landing? The trail ends nowhere. How about over here? Nothing. Paddle around the pond. Nothing. Let’s check the McKenzie. It shows the portage to skirt the pond. The Fisher doesn’t and this trail definitely went into a pond. Different maps. Okay, I’ll go with the Fisher for now. Mistake again. Paddle over there and look at that beaver dam pull up. Nothing (I thought). Just another pond going nowhere. Walk back down to Mug. See if there’s another trail nearby. Nothing. Back up on the pond. Something is dreadfully wrong. I know others that have done this trek. This isn’t right, but I’ll be darned if I don’t know what it is. Should I bushwhack into Wine? It is getting late. Don’t panic, Jerry. I pack my daypack with trail mix, first aid kit, survival stuff, hatchet, saw and my SPOT. I do not let it off my back. I look at my F-12 and set a compass course for 220 degrees. That will get me to Wine and then I can find the correct trail and work my way back. I use the skills I learned at Wabakimi when trying to find old portage trails, break twigs, blaze a tree now and then. Note unusual sightings like that triple brich tree there. It was scary. It got thicker. No Wine Lake and I’ve bushwhacked at least 30 rods. I turn around. I don’t see my broken twigs or blazes. Uh oh. This isn’t good. Don’t panic. Methodically turn around and take your time. There! A freshly broken twig you missed just to the right. There behind it a small tree blaze. Follow that.

Finally back to my canoe, I decided that worst case scenario I would bushwhack a camp on Mug and regroup myself. But first, let’s look at that pond behind the beaver dam once again. Leeches be damned, climb out and up. Nothing. But there’s a higher ridge. Climb up that. Yes!!!, There is Wine Lake and the pond has a stream that openly paddles right into it. I have never been so glad to see a lake in all my life! I paddled out and immediately saw the island campsite. What a beaut. Now look at the McKenzie. Find the REAL trail. There it is. Follow it. Okay, I now see my mistake at misreading the map and trusting a wrong reading on the Fisher. All is well. You can breathe again, Jerry. Didn’t have to use the 911 on the SPOT. How embarrassing would that have been to have only been 20 yards from a trail and need to be rescued! Did I say all is well?

The island site on Wine is exquisite. I was too tired to start a fire (another song idea) and had a vegetarian meal of broccoli pasta with freeze dried peas. Never has a meal tasted so good. I spent the evening with a margarita “on the rocks” pondering what happened earlier and slept soundly that night.

Amazingly, it was only a 3 fly day.