Sunday, July 10, 2005

We woke up, ate breakfast, and began to pack up camp. We decided we would try to be a little leasurely on our trip since we had given ourselves 6 days. We paddled toward the Horswe River inlet and stopped at a campsite just before to confer over the map. So far our maps had been a big disappointment. In the past our group had always used McKenzie and never had a problem, but this year we went with the Fisher series and were having a tough time of it. We set off for the Horse River not sure exactly what to expect. The River was quiet and so picturesque. We ran into the first portage quickly. The boys and Beth wanted to shoot the rapids but I was not so sure. In both my previous trips I had issues with myself and my stuff ending up all wet, making me unhappy and miserbale. I wanted to play it safe so I told Kevin that I would take our stuff on the portage and he could shoot the rapids. Breck and Beth decided to portage as well and let the boys take on the rapids. We could judge that they were pretty weak rapids so we didn't antipicate the 30 minutes it took the boys to get down them. Apparently the water was too shallow and the ended up walking the canoes down. They appeared before us with cuts and scrapes all over their legs from slipping on the rocks. When we finally got going again it was only a short paddle to the next portage. I was less than thrilled when Beth said she wanted to do the rapids. I grumbled to myself but decided to try to be a good sport and try as well. I didn't make it too far before I fell. I decided that this was not for me and told Kevin I was going to do the portage. I know my own limits and did not want to ruin my time with an injury. Kevin decided he would turn around with me. I didn't ask him to, but I was really happy that he did. This is where everything went sour. Kevin and I made it through the portage quickly and sat down to wait for Aksel and Beth, and Ryan and Breck. Aksel and Beth made it though the rapids rather quickly but told us they had to walk their canoe down and that Ryan and Breck were having a tough time. I suggested perhaps that someone should go back and help them but then we started to hear them argue. Their voices were pretty loud so we assumed that they would appear in no time. We got our canoes packed up and floated in the water for a while. The four of us discussed the map for a while until we heard the fight of the century occur from beyond the bend. We didn't really know what to do. I was starting to rethink our couples trip. I was a little annoiyed that Ryan had not better prepared Breck and that he did not listen to her when she was having second thoughts. The fighting continued, ruining the serene atmosphere just a bit. There was a lot of yelling and a couple of screams and then a few minutes later we saw Ryan appear by himself in a canoe. This was not good. His exact words were "There is a little problem and I need help taking care of a situation." I seriously thought we were going to have to burry a body but all he wanted was for Kevin to go and get her. It was akward for a while but eventually they made up. Needless to say, the last portage on Horse River we all took. Talk of shooting rapids was no more. We made it to Basswood pretty quickly as the strong current urged us on. Trying to decipher the map was difficult. We could not find the portage or the waterfall, but we could hear it. We saw the first campsite but had trouble locating the rest meanwhile we were being carried up the water. We saw the opening of what appeared to be a portage ahead of us but the map was confusing. According the the map it was a walk-in campsite, not a portage. As we were arguing about what to do, Beth piped up and said "uh guys." Well, we found the waterfall pretty quick and had to hall ass to get out of the current and not die. We decided to pull up to this so-called walk-in site and look at the map closer. We discovered that we were actually on the portage trail and started hauling our stuff. We spent some time exploring, enjoying the view of Lower Basswood Falls, and taking plenty of pictures. Once we had seen enough, we decided to look for a spot to spend the night. It was pretty late and we were having a lot of trouble reading the map and locating the campsites. Many of the sites that were closer to the falls were already taken so I began to get a bit nervous. We asked a group at a site to help us read the map and they seemed just as confused as we were. We borrowed their McKenzie for a minute, looked it over, and continued up stream a little ways. We finally settled on a site further up the Basswood River. This was a fairly nice site. It was located higher up and involved some climbing to get to it, but it was spacious and offered its own little swimming hole which we readily took advantage of. Horse Lake, Basswood Lake