Tuesday, August 09, 2011 Day 5 - Bottom half of Smoothrock to Spring Lake. 13.0 km travelled (stopped paddling at 11:30 a.m.) Portages: 1: 1200m Camp site Night Five –Spring Lake entry - 50* 22’ 23.1”N 89* 30’ 32.6”W

We got up very early today as we had a lot of ground to cover. We all packed up our stuff as water boiled on the Svea. A quick breakfast and out on the water before the dew could even burn off. The lake was glassine when we started southbound toward the end of Smoothrock.

As the morning progressed, a northerly wind picked up to about 8-10 mph. We could not have dreamed of more perfect canoeing conditions. We looked for pictographs along the way, but didn’t spot any. We were moving pretty fast.

We reached the end of Smoothrock by 11:30 a.m. We ate a quick lunch.

We started the 1200m portage into Spring Lake. The portage was uphill all the way for us. We had expected something like the North portage into Sunday Bay, but the trail was very nice; sandy, well-worn and very easy to walk on. I went first with a canoe and expected to stop half way. When I reached a campsite I could not believe I was at the end of the portage. I put the boat down and headed back for another load. Here is the end of the portage, but most of the trail was like you see in the pic.

It started to rain as I walked back and it was raining steady by the time I got to the east end and picked up the last two packs. I was soaked when I finally put on my rain shell. Dave and Pat had a tarp set up by the time I reached the end of the portage again. We huddled under the tarp as the rain fell. Not a thunderstorm, just a steady rain coming down. We could tell this would last a while. We were all a bit chilled, and I started to shiver pretty hard. Can’t you just see the roaring fire in this photo? NOT! Were actually all freezing, but hey, IT’S A PHOTO OP!

Of course, good friendship will warm a guy up, too!

I changed into my dry base layer and Pendleton. The other guys also changed into warmer clothes. Then we started a big fire, brewed some hot tea, and then had drinks for the next several hours. The fire burned nice and hot for hours.

Note how I lovingly cradle our Wabakimi punch.

The wind was blowing from the fire into our sheltered area. We hung up the wet tee shirts and they dried out over the next several hours.

We had beef stroganoff and herb flavored pan fried bread that Dave had brought along. That bread was hot and tasty! Just what we needed! The rain stopped after about 6 hours or so, and we watched as the sky slowly cleared. It got quite cold that night, probably in to the upper 30’s. Late that night I got up to answer nature and, half-asleep, wondered who left their headlights on?? Then I remembered we were 40km from the nearest road, so I thought one of the guys has left his head lamp on. “Gonna run down the batteries,” I thought. But then I realized the light was too bright to be a headlamp. Now I was starting to wake up and I looked to see where the light was coming from. Then I realized that I was seeing the brightest, crystal-blue/white moonlight that I had ever seen in my life! The moon wasn’t even full and I could see almost like daylight! WOW!

Oh, and by the way, the lashing on Dave’s boat worked like a charm.