Tuesday, June 12, 2018 Tuesday morning we finished up our stash of oatmeal in preparation for our longest paddle of the trip. I haven’t taken the time to measure around all the hairpins and oxbows on the Steel River, but it is likely over 50 km of river paddling from Rainbow Falls to the north end of Santoy Lake, if you account for all of the turns. The first half of this trip (Rainbow Falls to Deadhorse Bridge) contains numerous swifts and small rapids, so the kilometers peel off fairly quickly. The second half of the trip is much slower, however. Furthermore, there are a total of 4 logjams on this portion of the river, all of which require portaging around. Although there are sort of defined portage trails for the logjams, the jams tend to move around a bit (and grow) over time. Most of these portages had ‘landings’ on both ends that required some creative thinking to get in and out of. The banks were very steep, and composed of a strange mud/sand combination that would give way if you stayed in place too long. The river was deep in these sections so standing in the water wasn’t an option either. The trails themselves were full of blowdown, so we used the handsaw extensively this day. On one of the logjams we portaged to the point that we could see open water, and carefully lowered the canoe and gear down a 6ft embankment. As soon as I plopped my butt in the seat I looked further up ahead and noticed that this was merely a short ‘pause’ in the logjam, which went on for another 100m or so. All we could do is laugh, haul our gear back up the embankment, and clear the rest of the trail for portaging. The portage around the last logjam was in pretty good shape, as it is sometimes used by boaters moving upstream from Santoy Lake.  We reached Santoy Lake, exhausted, around 8PM, left with the choice of setting camp up on the beach, or paddling about 2 hours to the truck. There were 3 ft rollers coming in from the south and they were breaking over the large, shallow outlet of the Steel River. We figured that once we paddled over deeper water, the waves would likely ease up. We pointed the canoe towards a nearby peninsula to the SW, figuring we’d paddle that relatively short distance and see how conditions treated us. Luckily, the wind eased up and the 2nd half of the paddle across Santoy was fairly calm. Bobs took one last picture of the hills guarding the Diablo portage as we passed by and we reached the truck around 10PM. Although we were exhausted, we still had to load the truck and tie the canoe off. Once these chores were done, we headed towards Terrace Bay, hoping to get a hotel room and a shower. Once again, we stayed at the Red Dog Inn, and even found a place to grab a beer at the nearby Drifter’s Hotel. 
The drive home on Wednesday was long, but uneventful. We stopped at Tim Horton’s in Nipigon. I have never seen a longer line at a restaurant before. I suppose the dining options east of Thunder Bay are pretty limited. In Grand Marais we stopped at the Voyageur Brewery. Both the food and beer were decent. After dropping Bobs off in Rochester, I was finally home at 8PM.
Overall I thought the Steel River loop was an excellent trip considering it didn’t require the expense of a float plane, or complicated shuttle plans. This was one of the most scenic routes that I have paddled, equaled only perhaps by the barren grounds along the Sutton River. There were no other people on the entire route, and we had the large lakes and river all to ourselves. We saw 7 moose along the way and 2 bears (additionally, we saw 2 bears during the drive). The rapids on the river portion of the loop were great for being initiated to whitewater, although it is probably wiser to practice somewhere less remote. We didn’t fish nearly as much as I thought we would on this trip, and I wish we could have spent an additional day on Steel Lake, and another day on the lower portion of the river to look for brook trout.
The portaging on this trip was very hard. For the most part it was easy enough to tell where the trails were supposed to be, but they were more or less lost under downed trees and brush collapsed in from the sides. This wasn’t bad enough to ruin the trip by any means and I think we enjoyed the challenge overall. Although the Diablo portage lived up to its hype as an extremely difficult trail, it didn’t define the challenge of the Steel River Loop. Each portage had its own challenges and collectively they wore us down by the end of the trip. I have since heard that a group cleared the portages on the lake side in July of this year, and this would make the trip substantially easier.