Solo Trek into Quetico - No Country for Old Men
by Beemer01
Trip Type:
Paddling Canoe
Entry Date:
06/16/2010
Entry & Exit Point:
Moose Lake (EP 25)
Number of Days:
7
Group Size:
1
Discuss Trip:
View Discussion Thread (36 messages)
Day 3 of 7
Friday, June 18, 2010
Yep, that first portage was going to be a treat. Canadian Shield granite with a little ledge to get out on…. and then up, up and more up the veined pink and black granite. The wet and slippery granite. I flipped the canoe onto my shoulders and tested each and every step as I advanced up the portage. A misstep, a slip here and at best I tear up am arm or knee and smash the canoe…. at worst I tear a tendon or break something else and get to wonder how many days or weeks I would wait for rescue… or death. Seriously, I think this route has been substantially abandoned since the beaver dam below Kashapiwi blew out a couple of years ago. The condition of the portages tended to confirm that few pass this way anymore. I'd seen just one pair of paddlers since leaving Burke.
I eventually made it over with my canoe and then portaged my pack. The next portage over to Side Lake was noted in my maps as being very high with the downward portion featuring a jumble of thousands of rounded rocks to navigate. Yep, and even more fun in the growing rain and lowering mist. I slowly made my way across - single portaging with a pack in front was unthinkable - every footfall had to be calculated and tested carefully. The route over to Sarah from Side Lake offered two options, a single portage over Heart attack Hill or a slower and allegedly easier route that followed the stream. It was only midday and I was already feeling it. I ate a Cliff Bar and pondered my options, eventually deciding on the lower stream route - three short portages and I would be on Sarah, my day's destination. The first portage was quick, but muddy.
I pressed on to the second - more grade here. I decided to lead with my pack - and worked my way up the steep grade step by step. On an especially tricky section of off camber steps in the granite…. my head slammed into something solid. I staggered and saw stars. Literally. I'd been so intent on watching my feet that I didn't even see the large pine that had been blown across the portage by the storms of the last few days. I walked right into it. And hard as evidenced by the growing lump on my forehead - fortunately my hat had saved me from any abrasions or puncture wounds.
The pine was about 5'6" above the steep grade on the portage - exactly the worst height - too high to step over and too low to stoop under, especially with a canoe on your shoulders.
I dropped my pack and removed my weapons.
The Swedish hatchet and saw - as razor sharp as I could make them - took 45 minutes of sustained sweaty effort to make the two required cuts in the green sappy pine. I tossed the resulting six foot trunk into the woods. I was pretty whipped by the time that portage was reopened. I eventually made Sarah and found a nice campsite. The day started to clear up as I made a mid afternoon camp. I noted with a chuckle that there was a fairly new concrete block as part of the firepit. How on earth had that gotten here? I wondered if someone had not been the victim of a cruel practical joke.
I was filtering water and saw a group of four paddlers in a pair of Tandems. They were as well from Illinois - one of their canoes was a beautiful wood canvas craft, which the owner verified weighed close to 100 pounds after a week on the water. What a beautiful craft - but a formidable canoe to flip and portage.
I paddled around empty Sarah fishing and gathering shore bound Beaver wood for the evening's fire. Fishing was good around small stream that fed into the lake - I used a Zulu Spook plastic and tied into an immense Northern literally three feet off the shore. A lot of flailing and splashing - he bit off my 30# mono leader and spat out the ripped and torn white plastic lure. The hook never set properly.
Ah well, I count hooking up those big Northerns as a catch in my catch and release mindset. I never relish trying to extract a deeply set hook from those sharp teeth - barb or no barb.
The beaver wood snapped and crackled in the fire as I relaxed on the rocks in a Crazy Creek 'recliner' and read my book. I gathered enough beaver wood that the next eventual travellers would have a good supply cut, split and stored next to the fire ring with birch bark underneath.
Day Three - Isabella to Sarah Lake The morning broke cloudy with temps probably in the high 50s. The solid overcast was punctuated by occasional periods of light rain and mist. Great. 
My maps, marked up back when I went thru this area seven years ago, showed that the portages over to Unnamed and Side Lake were tough. I vaguely recalled a portage with a lot of slick granite that seemed to go straight up from the water's edge - well, I was about to find out if my memories were correct.
Yep, that first portage was going to be a treat. Canadian Shield granite with a little ledge to get out on…. and then up, up and more up the veined pink and black granite. The wet and slippery granite. I flipped the canoe onto my shoulders and tested each and every step as I advanced up the portage. A misstep, a slip here and at best I tear up am arm or knee and smash the canoe…. at worst I tear a tendon or break something else and get to wonder how many days or weeks I would wait for rescue… or death. Seriously, I think this route has been substantially abandoned since the beaver dam below Kashapiwi blew out a couple of years ago. The condition of the portages tended to confirm that few pass this way anymore. I'd seen just one pair of paddlers since leaving Burke.
I eventually made it over with my canoe and then portaged my pack. The next portage over to Side Lake was noted in my maps as being very high with the downward portion featuring a jumble of thousands of rounded rocks to navigate. Yep, and even more fun in the growing rain and lowering mist. I slowly made my way across - single portaging with a pack in front was unthinkable - every footfall had to be calculated and tested carefully. The route over to Sarah from Side Lake offered two options, a single portage over Heart attack Hill or a slower and allegedly easier route that followed the stream. It was only midday and I was already feeling it. I ate a Cliff Bar and pondered my options, eventually deciding on the lower stream route - three short portages and I would be on Sarah, my day's destination. The first portage was quick, but muddy.
I pressed on to the second - more grade here. I decided to lead with my pack - and worked my way up the steep grade step by step. On an especially tricky section of off camber steps in the granite…. my head slammed into something solid. I staggered and saw stars. Literally. I'd been so intent on watching my feet that I didn't even see the large pine that had been blown across the portage by the storms of the last few days. I walked right into it. And hard as evidenced by the growing lump on my forehead - fortunately my hat had saved me from any abrasions or puncture wounds.
The pine was about 5'6" above the steep grade on the portage - exactly the worst height - too high to step over and too low to stoop under, especially with a canoe on your shoulders.
I dropped my pack and removed my weapons.
The Swedish hatchet and saw - as razor sharp as I could make them - took 45 minutes of sustained sweaty effort to make the two required cuts in the green sappy pine. I tossed the resulting six foot trunk into the woods. I was pretty whipped by the time that portage was reopened. I eventually made Sarah and found a nice campsite. The day started to clear up as I made a mid afternoon camp. I noted with a chuckle that there was a fairly new concrete block as part of the firepit. How on earth had that gotten here? I wondered if someone had not been the victim of a cruel practical joke.
I was filtering water and saw a group of four paddlers in a pair of Tandems. They were as well from Illinois - one of their canoes was a beautiful wood canvas craft, which the owner verified weighed close to 100 pounds after a week on the water. What a beautiful craft - but a formidable canoe to flip and portage.
I paddled around empty Sarah fishing and gathering shore bound Beaver wood for the evening's fire. Fishing was good around small stream that fed into the lake - I used a Zulu Spook plastic and tied into an immense Northern literally three feet off the shore. A lot of flailing and splashing - he bit off my 30# mono leader and spat out the ripped and torn white plastic lure. The hook never set properly.
Ah well, I count hooking up those big Northerns as a catch in my catch and release mindset. I never relish trying to extract a deeply set hook from those sharp teeth - barb or no barb.
The beaver wood snapped and crackled in the fire as I relaxed on the rocks in a Crazy Creek 'recliner' and read my book. I gathered enough beaver wood that the next eventual travellers would have a good supply cut, split and stored next to the fire ring with birch bark underneath.
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