Saturday, July 26, 2014 Saturday: Adams, 10, 20, Boulder, 135, short paddle side trip to the west at the small river/lake in middle of portage, 100, Cap, 140, Roe, 42, Sagus, 65, Fraser, “Beautiful Narrows”, Thomas (Est 11 Miles) Departed 9:30 Arrived at Camp at 7:00 (9 ½ Hrs)

This was a closer to normal travel day, with a little bit of exploring on the way. The portage from Boulder to cap is interrupted by a small lake/stream. I paddled the stream to the West almost even with my destination Cap Lake, which was just to the north of my most westerly position if I had chosen to bushwack over a hill. Although I was guessing this was the case, I didn’t know for sure until I was able to look at the GPS markers from my SPOT device after the trip. The second leg of the portage is also different, in that it comes to a T on a 200 rod portage between Cap and Ledge Lakes. Once on Cap Lake, I stopped at the camp site to have lunch. I sat in the shade of a small tree in the middle of a blueberry patch to eat my Peanut butter and Jelly Tortillas while snacking on blueberries. Yummy. The campsite was a little odd in that there was quite a vertical ledge to climb in order to get to the top of an exposed rock where the fire grate was. I did not see much in the way of tent pads at this site. Another highlight of my paddling as the afternoon wore on, was the small narrows between Fraser and Thomas Lakes. It felt like I was paddling through a small canyon, and the high walls created a cool shady spot.

It was sunny with a light breeze when I found a very nice campsite on the north end of Thomas lake. There were two very close together within sight of each other. I discovered later that I had paddled beyond the first (eastern) campsite unaware of it’s location. The site I stopped at had a large open grassy flat area that could have accommodated at least 4 tents and an elevated campfire area. My first thought was, this would is nice enough to stay at for a layover day. I set up my hammock back of the campfire area and began to rig my tarp. I was interrupted by a sudden loud buzzing sound and looked up to see a large dragonfly captured in a spider web. I got a couple good minutes of film of the struggle between the fly and spider. With the spider drama over, I noticed that a weather front would be arriving shortly. I was able to finish setting up my tarp and get everything under it, before a gale of wind, rain and instant waves hit the site. From sunny and calm to stormy and rainy in less than an hour. I spent some time tweaking my tarp, setting weighted drip lines so the water didn’t pool too much on the tarp while my dinner of chili rehydrated.