Day 6 Sunday August 27, 2006 81 high/45 low
Emerald Lake, Hustler Lake, Hustler River, Posse Lake, Lucky Finn Lake

We had a breakfast of grits and got a late start again (9:30), leaving Emerald and headed for Rangeline. We'd spent some time poring over the map and debating the pros and cons of which way we might try, and the final decision was that rather than take the 280 rod portage into Lynx and then start bushwhacking north into Yodeler and Achundo, we'd try heading north up the Hustler River, cut west over to Lucky Finn and then southwest down Rangeline Creek to Rangeline. Going through Yodeler would have the advantage of knowing that someone had successfully gone that way before, but since we had the kayaks and could float in shallower water, we reasoned that we would find more navigable water heading up the Hustler River. If we were lucky, almost the whole way, with just very short bushwhacks in between.

We were VERY lucky, but unfortunately it was all bad luck. There was almost NO navigable water the entire way. As a matter of fact, there was so little water, that we never bothered to unpack our packs, but rather just tossed them in the seat of the kayak and then sat on top of them to paddle, pry and pull our way across the 20-30' of 'navigable' water here and there. Or even stood on them and poled along like a gondola, so we could try to see a path through the swamp grass. I'm not sure what the grass was called, but I named it razorgrass after slicing myself on it. Within an hour, both of our forearms were bleeding from multiple cuts received when pulling ourselves through the grass, but we seemed to make the best progress by grabbing clumps of it and pulling ourselves along, or poling along by separating our paddles into 2 halves like trekking poles, or the previously mentioned gondola style. Although standing in a kayak is not recommended unless you have REALLY good balance or as in our case, the waterway is so narrow that you can't help but land on soil.

This was a long hard day's work, and although we did travel some small distance, I would not recommend this way to anyone else, especially at this time of the year with the water level as low as it was. By the end of the day, we were beat up, bloody (I'll carry a scar as a memento), and thoroughly worn out, travelling a total of about 5 miles on the day. Both of us went for a swim. Actually, Jeremy did a face plant in about a foot of water, which I thought was rather amusing until he realized that his camera was in his pocket and had gotten soaked. Not too much later, I went in while trying to cross over top of a downed tree in a spot where the channel was about 3' wide and evidently 6' or more deep, because I went completely under except for catching myself on the tree. Jeremy held the laughter back with an incredible display of self-control, and only said that he wished he could have gotten a picture of my face, because my expression was the most perfect mix of surprise and fury he'd ever seen.

I almost neglected to mention that as we'd been travelling through, we'd seen plenty of leeches in the water. I guess it would be a way to illustrate how tough the day was by saying that at the beginning of the day, we tried to avoid slogging through waist-deep water because we really had no desire to be picking leeches off of exceptionally tender areas, but it wasn't too long before we had reached the point where we were so worn out we couldn't have cared less, and in fact, looked forward to the places where we could actually WALK, even if it was in leech infested water, rather than negotiate obstacles.

I'm also neglecting to mention the beaver. They've been really active in this area. I've always wondered how much they really understand about what they're doing when they dam an area up. Do they intentionally drop the logs in certain places in certain ways, or do they just drop them more at random? From what we could see, they just dropped as many logs as they possibly could to hinder our progress. No rhyme or reason, just every tree in the area on it's side, in every possible direction, so we'd have to climb over/crawl under it. It was about 2 miles of obstacle course.

Our battle cry for the day was "Norske Nook!" and it never failed to bring a grin from Jeremy's face. We promised ourselves that come hell or high water (or low water as the case may be), we were going to treat ourselves to another meal and a piece of pie at the Norske Nook if we survived the bushwhacking.

We skipped lunch partly to conserve on food, and partly because we were getting concerned about the lack of distance we'd travelled. It was extremely difficult to determine our position on the map, because some of the features just weren't there. ALL of the small water features that were on the map along the Hustler River were either non-existent, or so shallow that their shapes had changed, sometimes dramatically. Posse Lake was the only one we could identify with some certainty, and that was only a quarter of the way in from Hustler. After that, we had to scout around a good bit to try and keep track of where we were (and find ways around beaver and boulder obstacles). I must say that we did do a good job of that, but it took up some time. Somewhere around 5 pm, we reached Lucky Finn with packs and decided to call it a day. By the time we'd gone back and gotten the boats the last quarter mile and set up camp, it was closer to 7pm.

We were worn out, but the weather cooperated with us, and we didn't need to set up the tent or tarp. Just strung the hammocks up and slept in them, although with head nets to protect from the bugs. They hadn't been bad yet on the trip, but there was a definite increase in number along the swampy area. Turned out we didn't really need the head nets though. Before bed, we grabbed a quick dinner, choosing our favorite of Beef Stroganoff to celebrate making it past the Hustler River. We didn't have a fire that night, as we were in the PMA, and I wanted to leave zero trace. Since we didn't have the time to clean up a fire to where there was no trace of it, we didn't bother.