Day 1, May 31, 2008
Travel this day was: Entry 14, Little Indian Sioux River, Upper Pauness Lake, Lower Pauness Lake, LIS River, Loon Lake, Little Loon Lake; with 10.25 miles; 4 portages (300r); 6 hours travel. First camp was SW Little Loon Lake.
I don’t sleep before a trip. I am too pumped up to relax. Night seemed forever. But day came early at 5:13. We were up and going at 3:30 AM. Matthew had set the timer on his coffee pot, and the smell of coffee filled the air as we suited up for the bush. Fried egg sandwiches hit my stomach with a lump. No one is hungry, but that coffee sure was good. We packed our breakfast sandwiches for later. We left VNO at 4:30 AM, arrived at Entry 14 parking lot at 5:30, and hey, there is a parking spot right next to the portage! Way to go.
The day and the trip were now before us. Planning was done. If we don’t have it, we don’t need it. This would be my first outing with my new Bell Northwind Black Gold. I had paddled her ½ dozen times before the trip. There were only a few scratches on her hull. Now, fully loaded, I tried to maneuver around the rocks at the put-in. By the time we floated free, she was christened, and I was beaming like a proud new Dad. This canoe is going to be good. Nate, my bowman, dug in and we rapidly closed ranks with Matthew and Danielle. Our team was off at 6 AM.
The Little Indian Sioux meanders in a lazy fashion through “moose country”. It seems that the only thing that could make the going rough would be wind out of the NW. We had only a small taste of that. On our way back we would have the wind at our backs. The 60r portage about midway on the river is a nice walk along the LIS rapids.
Before the trip, I read some reports that recommended taking the 40r between the Pauness Lakes rather than the 8r. We did the 40 on the way in and 8 on the way out. The 8r is best. The mud on the 40r was slick as snot and twice as sticky. My advice would be to avoid the 40r if the weather has been wet. Devils Cascade was a pretty spot and our first portage of any significance. Once we descended into Loon from Lower Pauness, it seemed that the rest of our trip was spent climbing back up. As we hit Loon Lake after Devils Cascade, the NW wind that we had been feeling started to crank up. There was a good rolling swell by the time we turned into East Loon Bay. The combination of paddling into the wind and “motor boat land” made us a bit testy. We had no intention of stopping on this stretch but even if we did, all campsites were occupied by power boats.
At about 12 noon we crossed into non-motorized country at the Little Loon narrows. The first site on the west side was open, and we said lets call it a day. This was a nice site with good tent spots. Only problem with this location is that it sat next to the invisible line that marked non-motorized/motorized. Several times a motorized boat “tested” the narrows at the entry to Little Loon. They would see us, and slowly slink back down the narrows. It had been a good day, now it was time to kick back and try for a fish.
Pictures: 1) Little Indian Sioux River, 2) LIS rapids at Section 26; 3) Devils Cascade; 4) Camp on Little Loon; reflections on Little Loon