Sunday, September 04, 2022
We awoke to an enchanting mist on the water that soon burned off in the morning sun.

The plan for the day was to go from Jesse, to Maria, Pickerel and then Batchewaung. This was a turning point in the trip as we started heading north after being on an east bound course for the first three days.

Maria Lake has some special memories for me. In the spring of 2019 I witnessed a fisher hunting a hare on our campsite on Maria. This was a quite protracted sighting as the hare and fisher played hide and seek and as the fisher chased the hare around the campsite and surrounding woods. At one point my canoe partner was in the woods doing his business with his pants around his ankles when the hare quickly followed by the fisher nearly ran over his feet. That's not an experience that most people have. How the hunt played out in the end, I don't know. The hare ran out on to a little rocky peninsula followed shortly by the fisher. At that point I thought it was all over for the hare. However, the hare jumped into the freezing cold water (that trip was right after ice out) and started swimming towards an island maybe 300 yards (300 m) away. The fisher stopped at the end of the peninsula and watched. Once the hare got about half way to the island I thought he/she was going to make it. However, he/she turned back towards the mainland heading back towards a spot away from out campsite. The fisher then ran off into the woods in that direction. We never saw either of them again. We never heard a squeal. So maybe the hare survived and the fisher starved, or maybe not. Also the year before in the spring of 2018, my wife and I camped on an island in Maria Lake. We made it to the lake after a long hard day as the sun was setting and set up camp in the twilight. We were soon treated to a beautiful full moon on a cloudless night. It was nice to relive those memories as we paddled across Maria.
After the portage to Pickerel Lake, we paddled north past the ominously named Mosquito Point and finally through the little channel that led us to Batchewaung Bay. From this point we would soon start our westward journey toward McAlpine Lake. We could have taken a series of four short portages connecting Batchewaung to McAlpine via a series of ponds and creeks or go further north and then access McAlpine via one long portage (1200m, 240 rods, 0.75 miles). Although long, the long portage was reported to be pretty easy, and we selected that route rather than the continuously unloading and loading the canoe route. There were campsites around as we entered Batchewaung Bay, but there was a purported five star campsite across the bay on an island. In addition to the lure of the nice campsite, I also wanted to make the open water crossing to the other side of the bay while the weather was good. Once we arrived at the campsite, we decided it was overrated. It did have a fire ring high on a cliff overlooking the lake. However, the landing was awkward, the numerous tent pads were all lumpy and it was well used. A small secluded site is more to our taste. So, we paddled around a fair bit looking at other options, but eventually returned to the site for the night.

The view from our "non-secluded" site at sunset.