Tuesday, June 01, 2010 TRAVEL DAY By the time we got up the rain had stopped and it looked like it might turn into another decent day? There were still clouds, but also large areas of blue sky. We hoped for the best. Though it was no longer raining, everything was still wet. I always hate packing my tent & tarp away wet. I know I'm exaggerating here. But no matter how much I shake to get the residual water off, it seems like they weigh twice as much when I pack them away?! Anyways. We had a quick oatmeal with dried apples for breakfast and were on our way.
As we paddled away I noted that there was finally only silence coming from the cliffs. It's always kinda bittersweet leaving a spectacular lake with having had a great campsite to boot. We were covering familar water and portages since we had paddled across Amoeber & Topaz on our day trip a few days previous. As we paddled across Topaz and were about to pull up to the portage to Amoeber, a slight drizzle began to fall. We pulled our raingear out of our packs and put them on. I was coming down the gentle rock slope at the Amoeber end of the portage, when suddenly, I slipped a bit. Fortunately The Black Pearl came to my rescue. I was slipping back, but the Pearl broke my fall enough to keep me from going down, by the back of the canoe hitting the rock slope. Unfortunately there was a sizeable chip of the ash gunnel missing. I guess this too will be a reminder of what, to this point, was shaping up to be an extraordinary trip? We looked for eagles on Amoeber but seen none. The rain was picking up a bit as we entered Knife. There were a few spots across Knife where I tried to cut across the bay to save paddling. It was raining. Now the wind was picking up as well. Now I kept the Pearl hugging the shoreline as there was some chop on the lake. Things worsened as we neared the narrows of Knife. I thought if we could just make it to the 5 star site just past the narrows. We pulled up to the narrows, and the scene across the way said that my idea wouldn't be prudent at this time. The clouds looked ominous and the wind was REALLY blowing on the other side. I had noted that the campsite just north before the narrows had been open when we passed by. We headed back, double time. The landing at this site was terrible. Just as I lifted the Black Pearl out of the water at the landing the wind really gusted up and nearly took me for a ride. We got everything safely up on shore, tucked away. The rain started pounding down. At least there was some decent cover at this site. We pulled out our camp chairs and began waiting out the weather. Within 20 minutes or so the rain and wind dropped off significantly. We waited a little longer just to be sure. We could see the clouds in the distance looked much tamer, so even though it was still raining we pushed off once again. It continued to rain as we paddled past Thunder Point. Vickie commented that we must not be able to be in this area without it raining. LOL. It had slowed to a drizzle by the time we got to the Bonnie lake portage. It was a very nice flat trail.
Bonnie was a big bowl. Spoon on the other hand was a very scenic lake with lots of islands. The portage into Pickle started out with a steep climb then gradually tapers off passing by a neat pond before coming to a nice landing on the Pickle side. There is a little brook running alongside the trail which has a small cascade on the Spoon side. Maybe we were just anxious to get to Kekekabic? It seemed the portage from Pickle was a lot shorter and easier than I had expected? At any rate there were a couple of loons waiting to greet us on the Kekekabic end.
We paddled west upon the first campsite past the portage. Though we were wet and wanted to get out of the rain, we didn't go up to check it out. It didn't look too impressive from the lake, and besides there was probably a good reason it was so overgrown. We hoped the next one would be better? My Voyageur map showed it to be on a nice point. We pulled up to a very nice sloping canoe landing which ramped up to a gret kitchen area. Vickie exclaimed that even though it was still raining there was still some dry ground below the big white pines! I wondered aloud, "Where is the firegrate?" There were a couple of nice logs for seating plus a couple of large sawed off stumps for tables, but no firegrate. As we walked around, we found the firegrate out on the peak of the point affording a spectacular view of the lake in 3 directions. The seating up here wasn't the best, but that was immaterial since we had our camp chairs. The more we explored the more we REALLY liked this site. We had found our new home for the next few days!
We quickly got the tent setup, and there was a great area for the tarp as well. As soon as we were settled in the rain stopped. It wasn't too long later that the sky began opening up and it was actually a very pleasant, dry, evening. Kekekabic must be a haven for loons? There were at least 10 huddled out on the lake a few hundred yards out, and smaller groups further out in different directions. As we better explored the trails around this site looking for firewood we would periodically look out and see what all these loons were up to. They put on quite the display splashing their wings in the water while skipping across the surface. They were also noisy, but this was an almost welcome relief as their calls were much more soothing than the ravens we left behind on Cherry.
We had marinated chicken breast sandwhiches for supper along with some vegetables and rice with snickers bars for dessert. We sat up playing cribbage under the tarp still not completely confidant the rain was over. I believe I won this game?! We hung our wet clothes out to dry and turned in fairly early for the evening, with loon calls echoing across the lake. Cherry Lake, Topaz Lake, Amoeber Lake, Knife Lake, South Arm Knife Lake, Bonnie Lake, Spoon Lake, Pickle Lake, Kekekabic Lake