Keats Lake-Chatterton Lake-Russel Lake-Sturgeon Lake.

   Today started off clear and sunny. When we were breaking camp we had an eagle chasing off a seagull to get at some fish remains next to camp. The eagle eventually gave up and retreated across the bay. The seagull picked the remains out of the lake, victorious

   Before we packed up our gear I noticed a bunch of pitch oozing out of some trees around camp. Chad had also picked some off a tree the day before because we discussed using it to sturdy up the repairs on Frankenpaddle. Now that it appeared that we had a sufficient supply we decided to go ahead and do it. We melted the pitch on a spoon over a lighter and candle, then poured it into any and all of the creases and cracks in the paddle, till we felt it was sufficiently covered. As a mental note, it was later discovered that all the pitch that was mixed with soot from the candle remained strong and stable where as all of the pitch that was still clear started to crack right away.

   We fished our way across Keats Lake till we got to Split Rock Falls without any luck. On the bottom side of the falls we fished again but remained fishless. The crew split up and went fishing across Chatterton Lake as we made our way to Chatterton Falls. During this time Nate and I explored an island campsite we noticed that was at least halfway submerged below the water. It wasn’t a very big island site to start with, but with the high water level it was puny.

   At Chatterton Falls we met up with the rest of the party. Chad and Mike opted to take a shorter portage south of the falls but Nate and I followed Greg and Brian B up to the portage at the rapids. Greg was able to maneuver the canoe to shore at the top of the rapids and land the canoe on the north side. Nate and I landed on the south side next to a campsite. After exploring the various trails around the camp it was apparent that the portage wasn’t there. I wasn’t comfortable with crossing the river above the falls to the north side so we traveled south to the portage Chad and Mike took. After we made it across the portage and over to the base of Chatterton Falls Greg and Brian B were just putting their canoe in the water. They hadn’t found the portage either. Apparently the portage at the falls either doesn’t exist or was under water.

   We fished the base of the falls for a good bit of time but nobody was catching fish. We headed north and trolled lures on our way to Sturgeon Lake. On our way there we noticed a boulder sitting on an island with an inukshuk piled on top of it. Curiosity got the better of me so Nate and I went over to check it out. Other than it being worthy of a photo, we found nothing. 

   When we caught up with Chad and Mike, Mike was pulling in a walleye. This increased my desperation to catch a fish.  The last two days for me were not very successful. When we reached the north end of Russel Lake and rendezvoused for lunch Mike was the only one with a fish. The campsite we stopped at for lunch was somebody’s little gem. The cooking area was set up in a pile of boulders with flat surfaces and plenty of wind protection. Somebody put a lot of time into that and the fire rings. The only thing the site lacked were some flatter tent spots.

   After lunch we continued north and portaged around some rapids into the Sturgeon Narrows. Although we fished this area pretty hard only a couple pike were caught. Once we reached the north end of the narrows the lake opened up again the crew split up in hopes of catching dinner. Nate and I both managed to catch a pike but no walleye. 

   On our fishing voyage Nate and I headed to the far north end of the lake to check out some campsites near the portage to Halliday Lake. At first we couldn’t tell if it was fog or smoke, but when we neared a campsite up there we saw people. This was the first group of people we had seen since we left French Lake. It was kind of a let down to see other people there but we still felt lucky for the nearly five days that were people free. We checked out another site but decided it was too small so we headed back to meet up with the others. When we rounded the bend to head south, we saw another group of people paddling north. We ended up finding a site that would do fine. It had one fire ring by the lake that was only about 4 feet from the water due to the high water levels. There was another clearing and fire ring further back in the woods which we fixed up and used.