Friday, August 25, 2023

Friday was our last morning in the B-dub. We left our site on Lower Pauness by 6:30 AM, headed towards the short portage into Upper Pauness. The extra load/unload over the rocky area before the rapids goes as planned and we quickly but carefully complete the hardest sub 10 rod portage in the BW to get into Upper Pauness. Honestly, that portage is all slippery rocks, no landing on either side (at least at these water levels), steep and narrow. Good thing it’s so short. We picked our path through the wild rice and got back into the river headed south.

We passed a few people coming in and got to the portage landing just as another group was taking their last load back to the parking lot. Jaden carried the canoe for the first time this trip and I was happy to let him do that uphill portage instead of me. It was slippery but he did a good job and I'm hoping he'll be doing that more on future trips. We made it out before the storms hit as well, so for once this trip we were able to avoid the wrath of the weather gods. On the ride home we both agreed that this had been our best trip so far and despite the relatively poor weather we thoroughly enjoyed our time away from civilization for a week. We'll be back again in 2024!