Wine to Kelso

I started off the day and had to tackle the 90 rod up, down, up, down, out of Wine. I'm 10 minutes into my day and I am already in a full sweat.

Now on to tackle the portage I have been dreading. 480 rods. Yikes. I started off with the pack and walked for about 30 minutes and dropped it by the river crossing. The walk was challenging. Lots of mud, rocks, hills, etc. On the hilly sections the portage has created a ravine which floods the trail so lots of wet rocks and slippery footing. I survived and went back and grabbed the canoe. Had some lunch by the stream and decided to try and paddle it. That was a no go. It appears there is a huge beaver dam which made the river impassable.

After wasting about 30 minutes or so, I tackled the southern section. It took about 20 minutes more. They are several false endings as you see ponds thru the trees created by the beavers on the river. I kept thinking these were the end of the portage but no. The southern section was flatter and drier than the northern section however and soon I was paddling along the Kelso.

By this point I was getting pretty tired and thirsty but I wanted to get to camp quickly. Several storms were in the area, the wind had kicked up, and I could here thunder and see rain off to the south. Luckily, it all passed by and I took the peninsula sight on the north end of Kelso Lake.

I went out fishing for walleye later on but all I could catch were 15 inch northern. The storm would come thru at about 4 am soaking everything for my packing up the next day

9 miles 585 rods