Tuesday, May 18, 2021 It was decided that we were not going to follow our route plan. Primarily for the sake of T, we would instead head towards Kekekabic. We worked through Kingfisher and into Ogish making good time as we passed plenty of groups sitting in campsite through that stretch of the route. Annie and Jenny went well and soon we were in the Kek ponds. The ponds are another iconic stretch of route. The small rapids were flowing well beneath the high ridges and it was easy to enjoy the beautiful spring day. On Kekekabic, I had a surprise. We had read in old manuscripts that there was a single small pictograph on the lake and the previous year another guiding friend of ours had tracked it down. It may not be Fishdance, but at least we would see something for C. I followed the directions and we did find it: a single canoe painted on one of Kekekabic’s many faces. We swung down to the ranger cabin to connect with that piece of history before working west towards a campsite. When we decided on a site, we pulled in and began to set up. That’s when T said the most infamous line of the trip: “now aren’t we all glad we took a shorter day today?” And to this day I feel bad that all she heard in response was crickets. Three former trail guides do not come to a stop easily apparently! We stayed in camp for awhile before C and I took a canoe back over to the ranger cabin. I have learned since that D (now my girlfriend) was pretty disappointed that we didn’t invite her as she didn’t much like the idea of sitting in a campsite either. Our perspective was to leave D with her friend T so T wouldn’t get left alone in a campsite, but I guess that was a fumble. C and I hiked up the trail from the ranger cabin to the Kekekabic in search of the old fire tower. I had some vague descriptions, but nothing particularly current. There was some flagging tape which ended up leading us to the concrete footings, but where is the tower? We knew the rangers hadn’t hauled the whole thing out with them. The reports said many of the old towers were cut and felled to be left where they landed. After 30 minutes of searching, C found something. There was a strange swamp perched on top of the ridge, hundreds of feet above Kekekabic. That seems odd. Upon further inspection, we noticed this was no natural swamp at all. It was the hole where the tower was buried! We began to find piece of it: twisted steel here, section of ladder there, and a few other artifacts. They took much better care to conceal this one than say the tower at Angleworm or at Norway. Perhaps more people walk past this one. In any case, it was a fascinating connection with history to imagine a tower standing here. I can’t imagine how amazing that view would have been! We headed back down the trail and made a pit stop at Kek Lake before turning back to our campsite. ~Jasper Lake, Kingfisher Lake, Ogishkemuncie Lake, Annie Lake, Jenny Lake, Eddy Lake, Kekekabic Pond 2, Kekekabic Pond 1, Kekekabic Lake, Kek Lake.