Leak

Thursday, September 08, 2016

Morning came later than we hoped, and by the time we organized our packs, got our permit, and BLWL got the three aluminum canoes loaded on their trailer, it was after 9 am. We drove our cars the 20 minutes to the LIS entry point as well, so that we could just drive back to the outfitter upon our return. After showing the newbies the basics of canoe portaging, we were on our way. One unfortunate rookie portager took a spill on the fairly steeply inclined rock face on this first portage. Leaving the parking lot, it is all downhill to the river. Again, a little teaching lesson for everyone getting in the canoe the first time, but it didn’t take long.

The plan for the trip was a large loop around the Weeny PMA. I figured that with 6 strapping young men, this was aggressive but not too extreme. For tonight, I was hoping to get somewhere between Slim and Fat.

This is a beautiful entry point, and set a good first impression for my crew.

Shortly after setting out, we met a Ranger canoe. They said hi, but didn’t ask to see our permit. The winding river was relaxing and a good opportunity for the rookies to learn how to steer a canoe. It was overcast now, but would turn out to be a beautiful day.

I had made a bit of a mistake—put the two people who had never canoed in the same canoe. They were swerving all over the place and were several hundred yards behind the other two canoes. They were also complaining about water in the bottom of the canoe getting their stuff wet, so I figured their paddle strokes must be launching water into the canoe. Elm Portage was extremely busy, but all groups were good at giving space to others.

At the other end of the portage, we wisely decided to switch up the canoe groups to at least put an experienced canoe steerer in each canoe. A couple hundred feet from shore, one of the other canoes made a startling discovery: their canoe was taking on water! I guess it wasn’t the rookies’ fault earlier—the canoe had a leak!

We paddled back to the portage to investigate. We couldn’t tell where the leak was coming from, so it must have been some leaking from the rivets on the bottom. So what do we do now? It was a half hour paddle and 20 minute drive back to the outfitter. But we also had a lot of paddling ahead of us if we didn’t turn back. Would the leak get worse?

After much discussion, we decided to press on. We put the packs in the other two canoes to both minimize weight and keep our things dry. We would monitor the water in the bottom of the canoe and go to shore to empty the water when necessary.

Another 30 minutes or so and we were into Upper Pauness. So far, so good: the canoe only had a little water in the bottom. We took the quick portage into Lower Pauness and before you know it we were at the Devil’s Cascade. We dumped our canoes on the cliff and decided to have lunch next to the falls.

As we snacked on sandwiches, cliff bars, and trail mix, I was surprised to learn that half of the group was already tuckered out from the day. That was bad news, as I had planned to travel much further today.

I was able to rally the troops after lunch and we finished the portage to Loon. We received a warning from a canoe portaging the other direction: the wind is tough on Loon. We paddle up the little stream and once we get to the main body of water, we see the wind is indeed strong. We hug the right shoreline, and a couple waves nearly capsize one of our canoes. We have to paddle hard, as the wind is blowing south. Finally, we get around a tip with a campsite, and we are much more sheltered. We winded around the rest of Loon with little difficulty and set our sights on Little Loon. We got a little disoriented for sure and needed to get out the compass to find the narrow strait to Little Loon. Once in Little Loon, I was able to convince the guys to do one last portage into Slim. By this point the leaky canoe had a couple inches of water in it. We dumped it out, and decided that was about as long as a paddle we could do without dumping out the water. This was a nice landing--good place to spread out and take a rest before tackling the portage.

Wow, this portage was tough. Felt uphill 80% of the way and with the recent rains, it felt like climbing up a waterfall. The Slim landing is cramped and was muddy, so there was no rest for the weary at the other end. Everyone had had it, so we took the first campsite on Slim and set up camp. Not a great site, but it would do for the evening.

I had planned to take the unmaintained portage from Slim to Fat, so a couple guys went to scope it out. They successfully found it, but reported that it was difficult and recommended not taking it. I take their word and with that, we decided the route was too aggressive. So we planned to portage back to Loon tomorrow and take the portage over to Heritage and paddle down to Shell. I was a little disappointed, but given the morale level, I knew the trip would be much more successful with the shorter itinerary. We roasted hot dogs and potatoes, did some stargazing, and called it a night.

~Upper Pauness Lake, Lower Pauness Lake, Loon Lake, Little Loon Lake, Slim Lake