Monday, July 26, 2010 Day two: The big portage around the river and falls into Olifaunt.

We pull up to the portage and unload, then hike up to the top of the first hill to see the view and see what we are in for: a big hill to navigate up, lots of blueberries again, and beautiful views of the falls. We head back to the canoes and mine is gone. After looking to the right and not seeing it going over the falls, we see it out to the left. Thankfully, the wind was stronger than the current that day, and it didn’t get sucked down the falls. The good Lord was watching over me for sure. After a short retrieve, we set off on the first leg of this double portage. Just when you think you are at the end, you hear more rapids below and have to keep moving. Besides the length and the changes in elevation, it really was not too bad looking back on it now. I figured out I could take my pack off my external frame backpack and come back for the canoe and have it rest on the top of the empty frame. I had been doing this with the full pack also, but unhooking the pack made it so much easier.

Once we got through the river and the first big bay before Olifaunt, we were greeted by a family of loons fishing, and a pair of otters. They always bring a smile to your face seeing them enjoy their world. Their eyes sparkle and I’d swear a smile creeps across their mouths. The wind had picked up pretty good and was in our face as we came into Olifaunt. I had to get the girls to DIG again as I feared turning sideways and swamping. We headed to where we thought the portage was, but ended up hitting the point between the portage and the Pickerel River portage. We decided not to kill ourselves and push on, and made camp at a site that had a little lagoon next too it which made for a very protected dockage and good swimming and again, lots of berries. The next morning we decided to do the portage into Sturgeon instead of the river with multiple little portages