Solo Rejuvenation
by bumabu
Malberg Lake, 27 Rods, Koma Lake, 127 Rods, Pond, 48 Rods, Pond, 19 Rods, Polly Lake, 97 Rods, Phoebe River, 16 Rods, Phoebe River, 92 Rods, Phoebe River, 25 Rods, Phoebe River, 59 Rods, Hazel Lake, 140 Rods, Phoebe River, Line Rapids, Knight Lake, Phoebe Lake, 85 Rods, Phoebe River, 5 Rods, Phoebe River, 15 Rods, Phoebe River, 15 Rods, Grace Lake, 285 Rods, Beth Lake, 140 Rods, Alton Lake, 30 Rods, Sawbill Lake
As predicted, the six pack of Folgers has me out of bed bright and early. I light a fire to make coffee and a breakfast of oatmeal. It rained hard all night, but for now has stopped. My coffee cup rain gauge shows about a half inch of rain fell last night. The rain has been good to me this trip with the majority of it falling at night. I hate living in a rain suit. I am packed and coasting southbound at 09:00. I fish around the rapids coming in from Koma lake while waiting for a double father/son team to clear the portage landing. No luck fishing this morning. I pass the team on Koma and notice that the lake is empty as far as I can tell, surprising that a good fishing lake like this is empty this time of year. The two kids catch up to me on the far side of the first portage leaving Koma as I am loading and getting ready to launch. They are being absolutely victimized by mosquitoes so I offer up a good dose of one hundred percent DEET and they graciously accept the offer. I chat with them for a minute and offer some encouragement before pushing off. I launch on Polly lake at 10:00 on the button and make my way to the west portage connecting to the Phoebe river system. There are quite a few people up and about on Polly; it seems like they come to Polly or push to Malberg. I start making my way upstream on the Phoebe river and the portages are not too bad. Today I am resolved to leave my boots on for the duration of the day, dry or not, but will try to keep them dry as long as possible. I make it to Hazel lake at 11:55 and Sawbill by 18:00 is looking like a piece of cake if I don’t slack off too much. By now my boots are pretty wet but I am happy to have them on; I am officially a boots man. In the channel leading into Knight lake on the west side, there is a narrow chute with some pretty strong current. I try to paddle up it but the water is too fast and I find myself just wasting energy. I get out and line the canoe through the chute without having to empty it out and carry anything. I do, however, slip on a rock and land right on my butt in knee deep water just after clearing the chute: mission accomplished boots soaked! The rest of the portages on the lady chain prove challenging at the ends due to high water and obstacles, but the moving water scenery on this whole route today has been great. As I am completing the last fifteen rod portage into Grace lake I slip on some slick granite and go down to one knee very hard. No major damage done by this fall, but again, I am thankful to have boots on and not sandals because I think in sandals it would have been a complete shipwreck on that one. I launch on Grace lake at 14:35 and quickly cross it to meet my monster portage of the day: a 285 rod mostly uphill carry. I see another canoe headed my way from across the lake and decide to take a snack break while waiting for them with my hidden agenda. I get all of my snacks that I have left out of my pack and start eating. I need the calories for the carry and am trying to widdle away weight from my pack. As the two men approach I spring the trap on them. I offer them full access to my snack bag because they honestly did look hungry and I was hoping to transfer some weight to their bellies and packs from my pack. They start to refuse but then I plead with them to reduce the weight of my pack. They help me out and eat some snacks before I start the carry.
. Thank you to those kind men: it is that pound of food consumed at that portage stop that allows me to single portage this monster without stopping. The downfall is that by the time I reach the end, I know that my single portaging for the day is over, my shoulders are trashed. I paddle across Beth lake and notice the wind is picking up considerably; luckily it is at my back. I slowly paddle across Beth with shoulder cramps and notice the magnificent clarity of this lake. I double portage over to Alton lake and am staring at a pretty windy situation at 17:00. I have done some crazy things in this lifetime, but big water has always frightened me a little, even though I am a good swimmer. I have three choices: camp on Alton, go for it, or wait until the wind hopefully calms down before dark. Had it been any type of headwind I would have sat down right there and took a nap. I trim the Prism a little tail heavy for insurance in the tail wind and decide to make a break for the first long island to the northeast of the portage. As I pull into the lee of the island I am growing more confident as the one footers were not too bad, I was at least able to paddle faster than the tail waves. The big lake beyond looks a little rougher though…… There are three points on the east side of the lake between myself and the portage. I started to break for the first and quickly realized that there are cross waves coming in and that I will not be able to take that angle. I try for the second point and that angle is also not an option. It is now a do or die situation and I paddle for all I am worth towards the point I need to round to get to the portage. The waves are almost two footers and are slowly passing me by, even though I am paddling as hard as I can with my bent shaft. The trick is watching my right flank for southeast wind cross waves so as not to get caught crossways in a trough of one of them. I make it to the point and stay about twenty yards out from it when I start to make the turn. Just as I start to turn the corner, I find myself teetering on top of a large rock, broadside to wind and waves. In the next five seconds or so I do a frantic jig/shuffle/scoot (not necessarily in that order) and dislodge myself, pulling into the lee of the point and coasting to the portage. I enjoy the last thirty rods of this adventure while double portaging into Sawbill at 17:40. I glide into the Sawbill landing at exactly 17:55, what are the odds? I take a timed exit photo at the landing and then head up to turn in the canoe and grab a shower before heading home.
I see a black bear along the side of the dirt road about two miles south of Sawbill Outfitters; the first bear I have ever seen up here in ten years of tripping. After that I turn on Nation Public Radio for about five minutes and feel violated by the noise. I turn off the radio, lower the windows in the rain, and enjoy the last bit of silence as the tires hum down the washboard gravel road all the way back to the black top. As I am driving home I feel refreshed and more at peace with life in general. I needed this trip and feel as if in the last five days a thousand blessings have been heaped upon me from above. I came to seek guidance and received it in abundance. Now the hard part starts; putting the guidance into practice during life.