Tuesday, August 23, 2022 Day 2 Goal for today is to reach a Horseshoe Island campsite on Saganaga lake. We don’t feel like we need to rush anything but take the time to enjoy the first morning in the wild and watch a pair of beavers swim back and forth in front of the site. We pack up and are on the water around 9:30. Just a bit of a westerly breeze help keeps us cool as we make our long way up the beautiful Maraboeuf Lake.

We have some difficulty finding the portage around Saganaga falls (hint, it is not on the Canada side) and end up coming out to at least 30 people milling about the falls and sitting/laying on the rocks. Pretty crazy scene, never seen anything like it in the B-Dub. We have to weave through the crowd to get our canoes across and to the water. We had thought we might enjoy a lunch by the falls but decide to move on and find somewhere else. I didn’t even realize but in our haste to move away from the crowd we never even really took a good look at the falls.

We follow the shoreline to the west thinking we might enjoy a lunch at campsite 418 to see if it is really a 5 star site, but we can’t seem to find it and decide to proceed towards our goal of Horseshoe Island. We stop at campsite 423 and find it in a bad state of disuse. There was nice cove of larger pines where we enjoyed a quick lunch and get serenaded by the college crew signing a paddling chant on their way back to their camp

There is a bit of concern with campsite availability so we keep lunch short and set out again against the light breeze. We see the kids are split between the two campsites on Oskenonton Island. Approaching Horseshoe Island we see that the eastern site is taken, but we are hoping to get the site the outfitter had recommended on the NW part of the Island. As we rounded the NE point of the island we see that the site ahead of us on the island north of Horseshoe is open, so Rayn and I take the long route to take a look just in case our first choice is taken. This site (376) looks like a nice site and open, but after lingering for about 10 minutes and not seeing Gavin and Eric, we decide that they much have found and taken claim of our first choice.

And indeed they had and this was really a great site. Unlike most of the area we had been travelling through, this island seemed to have been spared any of the fires over the last couple of decades and had a number of mature pines. The best feature was the tall rock shelf in camp at perfect working height, so we were able to cook, prepare meals, etc. without having to stoop on the ground. Again we got camp all set up and this time took the time to properly set up the tarp, as it looked like more substantial rain was on the way. This is confirmed when I check my Inreach mini. We also see that it will likely rain pretty much all the next day.

With this in mind, we have a discussion and ask the scouts what they want to do. They don’t like the idea of packing up and traveling in the rain, and note that this is really a nice campsite and decide that tomorrow will be a layover day. That afternoon we get just a bit of fishing in before we scavenge for firewood to put under the tarp. As a bonus, I find a couple of Blueberry patches! Night falls and the rain starts, so it is a pretty early night, and I fall to sleep listening to the raindrops on the hammock tarp.

~Maraboeuf Lake, Saganaga Lake~Maraboeuf Lake, Saganaga Lake