Day 5: Wrist Lake to Haven Lake

We got up early, made our travel day breakfast of oatmeal, Clif bars, and coffee, and struck camp. A bluebird day again was awaiting us, and a gentle east wind this time, which we didn’t mind since we were paddling westward towards the portage to Jigsaw Lake. Western Wrist Lake marks the start of a not-too-old burned area that extends all the way to southern Haven Lake, and we could see the charred tree trunks and exposed granite in the western bay as we headed into it. This portage has thankfully been cleared and is well marked now with cairns, and you could tell what a mess that Kingfisher and his crew had seen when they went through a couple of years ago. It was like portaging on the moon: exposed granite faces everywhere and dead tree trunks Cairns had been placed to follow, but at times you would get disoriented and have to double back to find the last one. It was a 160 rod carry, which would be the longest of the trip, but it really wasn’t bad at all. We cleared some limbs in a couple of places, trying to leave things a bit nicer for the next group through.

 

The put in to Jigsaw was a hurried affair, since it was in a bog and the mosquitos came out as a welcoming party. Jigsaw Lake looked so interesting on the map, but in person, it was a mess. The whole lake has been completely burned, and with its many islands and narrow passages, it just is like a big depressing maze. Camping there would be an unpleasant experience, and it’s too bad since there is so much fishing potential, a lake where you could always be out of the wind. On our pass through, I caught one pike, but we mostly just moved on through to the next portage, which exits out the northwest corner of the lake. Jigsaw looks like it will be a pass-through only lake for some years to come.

We found the portage to Jigsaw and resumed our scorched-earth portaging technique. This carry was shorter, about 105 rods, but was more difficult. There were more vertical sections, especially on the descent down into Gulch, and we were glad that it was dry because the mossy granite has “sprained ankle” written all over it. The put-in is not much better, with only room for one canoe at a time. This was a reroute from the old portage that went basically along a creek bottom, but you could see that the burn and subsequent blowdowns would have made that way a nonstarter. We shoved off into Gulch Lake which showed some promise of green trees at its north end. The guys we had seen on our first day had told us to give fishing on Gulch a try for walleyes as we headed through, so we worked a couple of likely-looking spots and took some 15-17” fish. It was good to catch a walleye again after having none on Wrist for the past two days.

The portage exit out of Gulch towards Haven Lake was tough to find. The lake kind of just peters out into a small creek, and we had to jump out over a floating bog just to the right of a large beaver lodge to find the very narrow path. It took a bit before you were sure that you were in the right place, even though the portage was short (55 rods) and you could see where you needed to go basically. On the way across the portage, we came across a very large moose leg with the hoof still attached. There was still some hair on it and it stunk in the hot sun, as flies buzzed around it. We looked around a bit on our way back to see where the rest of it might be, but surmised that wolves had dragged it away up the hill somewhere. It was hot and we were ready for some water and lunch by the time we put in to the southern tip of Haven Lake, but found that the southern lobe looked relatively uninviting after the burn. We headed towards the narrows, where I had read about decent campsites. We stopped at one just south of the narrows on the west shore of the peninsula that forms them. It was a neat spot for lunch with great views of the southern part of the lake, but again we had trouble identifying enough decent tent pads without having to clear away a bunch of brush. We took a break and some pictures while we discussed our options over lunch.     I had not much information about camps on the north part of Haven, but that that northern lobe was untouched by the fire, so it looked great to us. We figured that we’d fish our way around the marked sites and pick the most inviting one. The first one we spot was literally only big enough for one tent (and maybe only one person) and the second was completely unusable (in fact it was nearly impossible to spot) due to the blowdowns. The third candidate was on the westernmost island, and it could have been workable for a group with three tents, but not without some labor with the saw first. We were getting a bit frustrated since we only had one other one marked, and were pretty much relegated to looking at it since the pickings were slim. Greg and I paddled up to it, and were glad to see it looking good with a flat granite front porch and a nice view of an island grouping. The two best tent pads had fallen trees right over them, but this was easily our best option, so we got out the Sven saw and had at it. We rebuilt the fire ring to accommodate the east wind, and surmised that this site, like so many that we had seen, not only gets little use, but when it does, only sees groups of one or two.

After some work, it was home and we got in to take a dip and clean up. It was a good feeling knowing that portaging was done for this trip, and we had the better part of two days to fish and relax. We found walleyes nearly everywhere we tried, to our delight. They were up fairly shallow and were willing biters, but all seemed to be a bit stunted with nearly all fish being between 15” and 18”, which is great for eating. Last year, Steve and I had caught a double on Kawnipi Lake in Quetico on topwater baits, so I tied on a fire-tiger colored Chug Bug to see if I could repeat. The first cast resulted in a strike and landing of a 17” ‘eye.

Later, a group of 7 loons came by, making a racket. I had never seen that many adult loons in one group before, and I scrambled for my camera and long lens. I managed to get all 7 at once in this shot.

We were treated to a great purple sunset while we enjoyed fish chowder with walleye and some grilled veggies (zucchini and yellow peppers) which we did over the fire with olive oil. Good stuff.  Being that far north during the longest days of the year meant we often weren’t back in camp eating our dinner until 10 or 11pm, and this night was no exception.