Sunday, May 16, 2010

We woke early Saturday to a very cool & crisp morning. We actually ate our breakfast in the vehicle with the heater on. There was hardly a cloud in the sky and as the sun rose the temperature climbed quickly.

The lake had a beautiful mist blanketing it. It was still before 7:00 and there was quite a bit of activity at the landing. Before we knew it the Black Pearl was cutting glass across a mirror named Sawbill. There were also several canoes about once we were out on the lake. We joked there was more traffic here than we had seen on the way up.

Once we started heading north towards the Kelso river portage we began to separate ourselves from the "crowd". We spotted a bald eagle. I tried to take a picture, but it seemed everytime we were about to get close enough it would take off and fly further up the lake. This continued all the way to the Kelso river portage. I guess Ol' Baldy was acting as our guide?

As expected, the portage to the Kelso river was across an excellent wide flat trail. There was a small little stream running along the northside of the trail. We started on again in a swampy/boggy looking area. Kelly mentioned he hadn't seen a moose in his several trips up here. And rightly figured this was prime time & habitat for seeing one. We were quiet, and kept a sharp eye, but no moose was seen today.

According to my map, the Kelso river looked a bit trickier to navigate than it actually was. It appears that there is a fork in the river about half way between Kelso lake and Lujenida lake. Being as narrow and winding as the Kelso river is, that it might be easy to start heading up the wrong fork? We encountered no such problem coming or going. Never even noticed where the fork was.

We hardly recognized when the river became Lujenida lake. Before we knew it we were at the start of the portage that had been inexorably transfixed on our minds the last few days. The portage started off with a long, not too steep, gradual climb. This type of terrain repeated itself several times over the course of the long trail.

There were several boardwalks constructed over most of the wet areas. Generally speaking, the trail was a well worn undulating path with only one short tough climb at about the halfway point. The real problem was that the trail had not yet been cleared of downed trees etc. Most were easily traversed over. Naturally the 3 worst ones were on the steepest hill. The only way to pass was to set the canoe down and slide it under 2 of those trees, then crawl on hands and knees with the packs. We double portaged it, so on the way back I pulled out my camera.

Mercifully we finally finished. I would rate this portage on par with the Missing Link - Tuscarora portage. Maybe just a bit easier if not for all the downed trees. We took a break and caught our breath while enjoying a well deserved cool drink.

We pressed on down the stream between Zenith and Frederick. There are a myriad of different potential routes as this waterway is more maze than river.

We seen a hawk perched on a small branch just before having to pull over a small beaver dam. My Voyageur map didn't show it. But there is, what I'm guessing to be a 7-8 rod portage between Zenith and Frederick. This may be shorter in higher water??? But Im think it will almost always be necessary. It is a very poor trail and the Frederick end is espescially rocky. Kelly wound up taking a nasty fall while trying to set a pack in the canoe. While he did end up with some bad scars and scratches, fortunately there was no serious injury. I took this as a sign that the long portage had really wiped us out. There was a campsite on Frederick. We decided to stop there and rest before making our final push into Wine.

The site was slightly elevated and had a decent view of the lake.

It was a nice spot to pull off and take a break. Though the overnight camping ammenities were, at best, sparse. We pulled out the trail mix and sat down to catch our breath. The original plan was to head for the island site on Wine. I mentioned that the site nearest the portage was also supposed to be a nice one. I suggested that we grab that one & save ourselves an extra mile or so of paddling.

We paddled across Frederick to the portage. A couple of rods up the trail, there stood 2 large white pines that the trail ran between.

They appeared to be 2 sentinels guarding the gateway that must be passed through in order to enter Wine lake. The trail itself started with a moderate climb on a decent dry trail before leveling off. About midway there was a short up and down then a steep decent on a rockier trail down to Wine. There was a decent overlook of Wine at the top of the trail before the steep decent to the shore.
We loaded up and pressed on to the nearest campsite only to find it occupied! These were the first people we had seen since Sawbill. With no choice but to paddle on we headed for the island site. I was somewhat surprised at just how narrow the channel was on the north end separating the 2 lobes of Wine. Every map I've seen of this lake shows the campsite to be on the east side of the island. The WEST side is where you'll want to head if looking for the landing.
I had heard this was supposed to be a nice site. At this point we would've grabbed virtually any established site with flat ground. The site was all we could've hoped for. Without fully taking the time to enjoy how nice it was, we quickly set about getting camp set up, chopping firewood, and preparing supper. The brats we had were among the best I'd ever tasted.LOL It would prove to be an early evening for us. We both hit the bags just as the sun was going down.

Sawbill Lake, Kelso Lake, Lujenida Lake, Zenith Lake, Frederick Lake, Wine Lake