Wednesday, June 16, 2021 Woke up early and had pancakes and eggs. We ended up having a long discussion on education and government, and as Chuck Norris famously says, “Nobody makes me bleed my own blood!” enough said. Getting in and out of the canoe would prove challenging on this day as I tipped the canoe twice on this paddle from our campsite to Thunder point, getting in and getting out! Good news? These were my only two mishaps of the trip and they both occurred in less than a foot of water; however, I ended up half wet on each side from this, for a full soaking. It was a nice paddle, as Pete chose to catch up and fish the point while I was climbing the point. It was pretty much straight up, but I made it and took some pics, even got Pete fishing below me. With our destination for the day being Kekekabic, I safely worked my way to the bottom, where I met a guy who was on this trip with his sister and her family (husband and kids) – I guess we gabbed for 10-15 minutes, I was stalling so Pete could catch that Knife Laker, but none cooperated, and we were on our way. Peter is in the 2nd picture below, bottom center.
First portage into Bonnie was relatively flat and I kept pace, but Pete outdid me at Spoon portage and ended up with three trips to my one, but in my defense, he did beat me across Bonnie and was coming back when I found the portage, and I am not the fastest traveler. The portage into Pickle was started with a steep out before flattening out, but otherwise relatively flat and short at 25 rods. Going across pickle, I paid attention to where Pete went and was able to stay close and get all my gear across on the final portage of the day into Kekekabic. I had dreamed of getting to this lake for so long that I just wanted to sit in the canoe and take the lake in, figuratively of course.
As we got going, Pete started across the lake toward campsite 1421 and I was following as the waves kept building when the winds picked up. I ended up going towards the big island to work into the waves. At the end of my paddle, I was rewarded with a pair of loons swimming up to the canoe and posing for pictures, or maybe they were feeding in the shallow water. Pictures captured and I was off to the campsite to set up for the night.
Peter was out on the water and caught a couple of nice trout and we were set for dinner, trout and biscuits. After dinner I notice an Eagle perched on a tree on an island in front of our camp. I noticed the eagle because the Seagulls kept dive bombing the Eagle. I watched this for about 10 minutes after sunset, and it was a good day and the plan was to move on to Fraser in the morning, and I went to sleep. Picture of first Kekekabic Lake Trout below:
Eagle being Dive-bombed!!!!!!