Wearing a hat along with my long underwear kept me warm during the night. We wake to a chilly and breezy gray day. The wind is in the trees. I make breakfast of oatmeal with dried strawberries. A power bar and strong coffee round it out. Good stuff from the French press. As I clean up a mature bald eagle flies into our camp and perches high in a tree. It sits there the whole time I pack up and leaves when I load the canoe. Hmmm, I wonder if it was curious about Luna or maybe it knows there might be food scraps around.

We’re packed and on the water at 9:30. There’s no goal for today and we will take what comes our way. We’re going to travel and portage along a series of waterfalls called “The Falls Chain”. It’s been on my bucket list of places to travel in Quetico for awhile now and I’m excited to go.

We bid adieu to “The Hilton” on McEwen Lake.

It’s a long paddle on McEwen against the wind to the portage landing that goes to Kenny Lake. I’ve decided to take the longer more scenic route. I passed up an earlier short cut portage to the Falls Chain but would have missed two of the waterfalls. I feel good so we start the little used 253 rodder to Kenny. This would be the longest portage of the trip and yes, it’s as tough as advertised. Luna loves the trail no matter how tough and scampers up, over, and around with no problem. She’s having a good time.

The landing at the end of the trail is messed up with a large deadfall blocking the way. To load the canoe we both have to wade in black mucky water up to my butt. On top of that it stinks. We paddle through Kenny where I notice the west shore showing the effects of a large forest fire back around 1995. There’s new growth trees among larger burned out trunks.

Soon I hear the rumble of Kenny Falls. With all the recent rain the falls are roaring as we get close for the next portage.

By now the sun’s out and we take portages passing Koko and Little Falls.The trail is much more open now as the Falls Chain gets a lot of visitors. We haven’t seen anybody since early on our first day but as I pull up to the portage for Koko Falls I see a large green object coming out of the forest. The older man unloads his canoe in the water and we exchange hellows. Soon another older gent follows up with a pack. Luna starts to growl as we sit offshore in our canoe. They are curious about her and I assure them she’s ok it’s just that it’s been awhile since we’ve seen any people.

Luna quickly makes friends with both of them. We talk and see each other as we cross back and forth along the portage. Nice guys from Michigan who have been coming up here together for years.

It’s smooth sailing now and the day is warm and beautiful as we launch into Wet Lake. I pull in to an empty campsite and we eat lunch. I’m getting pooped now and it’s 3:00 so I decide to look for a site soon. After 45 minutes of more paddling we come upon a nice falls with an open campsite right next to it. This is it, we’re done. The camp is on one side and the portage is on the other so we will get some privacy. It’s a real nice site right near the roaring falls.

I set the tent up not bothering with the tarp this time. I go for a cleanup swim with Luna as we are both muddy. I had to coax her in and she gets out rather quickly but at least she got clean. There is a real nice flat rocky area with good sitting rocks out in front of the falls so I take time to dry off in the sun. There’s not a cloud in the sky and there will be no moon tonight. I’m hoping to come out to this point after dark and check out the stars.

I play a fun game of Frisbee with Luna then see that the batteries on my Steripen water filter have died. Big mistake not bringing back up batteries. Now I have to be real careful where I collect my water. I take the empty canoe with Luna out to deep water and fill our bottles. Drinking right out of the lake tastes so fine. It’s pretty much like drinking bottled water up here.

I cook up the Hawk Vittles “Bison Stew” tonight and it’s real tasty. It will be interesting to see how I sleep with this roar of the falls nonstop.

Bald Rock Falls.

Video of the falls and camp.

Quetico 2013 Bald Rock Falls Comp 0001 from Tom Basso on Vimeo.