Monday, May 13, 2013 Early to rise. Super cold. Everything frozen. My very wet trail running shoes are now so frozen as to make adequate hammers, shoelaces locked in wild tangles. And my new little camp chair is now part of the landscape. While enjoying sitting in it yesterday it sunk into the soft ground and now it is well anchored. So my first use of the hatchet I debating bringing along, is to free my camp chair from its frozen embrace. But it is dead calm and the sun it starting to rise through the trees. I can see my breath so clearly it startles me at times. I love oatmeal in canoe country and today's oatmeal is the best ever. Although I am very fearful of the cold water, paddling on the glass like water is glorious. At the first portage on the Kawishiwi river I struggle with my clamp-on yoke. It takes me the entire trip to master the use of this device. It is pretty cool to only have animal tracks on the portages, my footprints are the first this year. While padding on this little river I thought about the proposed copper mine and no one paddling here would think that a good idea. At Kawaschong lake I can not find the portage to Townline lake and spend at least on hour looking for the portage in the wrong area. The Mackenzie map appears to be wrong with the portage marked on the east side of the low swampy area when it is actually on the west. This whole area is post apocalyptic. I surmised that it is part of the 1999 blowdown which then burned in the pagami creek fire in 2011. These portages were muddy and had enough downed trees that I got out my saw and cut them out of the way on my trip back for the canoe. Once on Polly I was worn out and ready to fish. 5 minutes after starting to troll the shoreline I caught a small northern but that turned out to be my only fish of the day. I made camp at 5 star site on an island with a narrow channel on the west side at the north end of the lake. By the time I got my camp set up it seemed too windy to venture out so I fished with a Lindy rig nightcrawler setup in the little channel but no fish took the bait. I dug my flip phone out and took a couple pictures of my camp and was shocked to find out it was only 2 PM. I still can not figure out how to access these pictures. This channel seems to be a beaver highway. Early to bed again as it is cold and windy. The only time I am warm is in my sleeping bag.