Tuesday, June 01, 2010

The loons went crazy last night, must have been 6 or 8 of them all wailing at the same time. Rained pretty hard for a long while, pitter patted me to sleep, the old tent held up just fine. Woke up at one point and it was so bright outside that I thought the sun was coming up. I poked my head out of the tent flap to find a crystal clear sky and a moon so bright that I could have read a news paper by it.

Woke up to partial sun partial sprinkles; weird weather. Coffee and oatmeal for breakfast then packed up a wet camp and pushed off. Two fellas at the north east campsite, the last I would see for a while.

55 rod into N. Temperance, seemed longer than 55 but it was cake none the less. N. Temperance is a real beauty, perhaps one of the most beautiful that I have seen. High hills to the west, very clear water… an absolute treat! To this point I have been traveling through areas affected by the big blow 10 years ago; 400,000 acres of forest pushed down by straight line winds. Mother is taking back what is hers quite nicely, the bush is lush and green and thick but the devastation is still quite evident… until you get to N. Temperance.

105 rod in to Sitka is no sweat. 140 from Sitka to Cherokee is a bit of a mule trail. Not too bad going south to north but the come back is a thigh burner.

Stuck to the south shore on Cherokee, thought that I might check out the island site. Going through the narrows between the island and the south shore, fighting a stiff head wind, I pick up some movement from my right periphery and look up in time to see a black bear cub scurry off in to the bush… cute little bugger. Momma is no doubt just out of eye sight so I decide against staying at the island site and push on to the second site up from the portage on the western shore. It’s a nice site, three or four tent pads and a great view of the lake which appears to be deserted. I contemplated making camp but once again decide it’s just too damn early to stop for the day. Had a Cliff Bar and a cup of coffee for lunch and got back to paddling, destination Sawbill.

Cherokee Creek is a really neat paddle, very intimate. At least one beaver dam to pull over, may have been more but I don’t remember. 180 rods in to Skoop, 12 into Ada, pull over a dam, 80 rods into Ada Creek, 80 in to Sawbill. None of the portages are difficult, you could drive a golf cart across the 80 from Sawbill to Ada Creek, but it all adds up and I am getting tired. The wind was still blowing pretty good so my plan was to stay in the wind shadow on the western shore and swing up to the site on the big island. Plan dead, the site is taken. I was in no condition to fight the wind across this big drink so I decide to come about and surf the wind and waves to the site on the south east side of the bay. Luckily, the site was vacant and it’s a real beauty, 5 stars.

Looked like rain so I hung the tarp and as soon as I finished the sky opened up and I spent a good long while under it taking shelter from the rain. The rain blew over and the sun made a curtain call; looks like I’m in for another beautiful sunset.

-Set up camp
-Dinner of Chili Mac
-A small fire
-A night cap
I was visited by a loon a couple times. He was fishing right up against shore and didn’t seem to mind that I was 10 feet away. He just kept on casting in to the rocks, reeling in minnows; he’s a much better fisherman than me. I had a hare and a mouse in my S. Temperance lake site this morning. Saw a couple huge garter snakes along the portage trails; I think that I have seen more wild life on this trip than I have seen on my previous 5 combined. Hope to see a deer tomorrow, kind of a wild life grand slam of sorts. Hit the rack shortly after the last bit of light faded in the west. It was a pretty hard day; I can’t believe how good I feel.

S. Temperance, N. Temperance, Sitka, Cherokee, Cherokee Creek, Skoop, Ada, Ada Creek, Sawbill

653 Rods