Sunday, May 28, 2023 The next morning, we worked our way back to the old portage. After locating the rock described in the 1964 DNR benchmark survey, we noted where the portage used to be. As predicted, nothing serviceable remained, and though the portage was gone, the obstacle to portage around was far from it! The water falls quickly out of Maniwaki into a deep, rocky gorge. We tried the creek briefly before turning up the ridge into the thick jack pine stands above. I scouted ahead and hit a couple of dead-end points where the route ahead was too steep to portage safely, especially with a canoe. We slowly managed our way through the tangle, trying to connect the open rocky patches with brief sections of barreling ahead through mangled brush or precarious jungle-gyms of down timber. This ridge sits way above the valley below. We didn't know how long to portage, but we knew the old portage was some 200 rods plus, and if the sound of whitewater below was any indicator, we had our work cut out. We bashed down the face at the most manageable decent we could find, still a tricky obstacle course. We popped out at the creek below the four set of rapids and above the fifth. We paddled a short distance down and started the portage around the fifth on the south shoreline. This beautiful stretch of water is a complicated one to portage as the topography is pretty jagged in the surrounding valley walls. We waded through the stream at a tough point, followed a little further on the north shore before coming back to navigable water below. There are some massive log jams in this section which impede progress downstream and force portages around them. After a few more stretches, we blasted out into the open valley of Hope Creek. A few more push-throughs lay ahead before we pulled into South Hope Lake. At South Hope, we sat and filled waterbottles and watched a pair of moose for awhile. They seemed to detest the flying critters as much as we did. Forebodingly, they took off right down the rapids we were intending to follow. Figures. Wonder if we'll find them again? The topography around South Hope was nice, more scenic than Maniwaki. We headed for the rapids and portaged briefly on the south shore. There were a pair of swans in the pond which took off at our approach. We lifted over the beaver dam at the end and into Hope Lake. We climbed the 15 ft boulder at the lake and had a snack break overlooking this primitive lake in front of us. In 2019 we took a post-dinner trip back here from Insula during a guide staff-training trip so we had a pretty good idea of what lay ahead. The worst was behind us and we could afford to enjoy this moment. We paddled down the south shore, pointing out former campsites as we went. It's short portage around the first scenic rapid set on the creek out from here. The second former portage is where we remembered the worst portaging. The old 50 something rod portage went up and over the ridge, thus shortcutting some distance. Following the creek forces a few shorter portages along a longer route. Further on is a single rapid set which once had a short portage. We knew that there was a trail around the final rapids, at least there was four years prior. We were unable to find it at first so we started bushwhacking as we had been. I finally bumped into the trail and we took it to the end.This was a surreal moment. It felt almost as if someone had dropped us into the middle of a BWCA trip. Everything before this moment was new and challenging and difficult, harder than any trip either of us had ever taken by canoe. Everything after this moment was back to a standard Boundary Waters trip with portages and campsites and other groups. It was like two totally different trips joined together by this moment. We savored it as we headed out into Insula right around lunchtime.

Every campsite we passed was open, even some very popular island sites, which seemed strange for Memorial Day weekend with nice sunny weather. The first group we saw was camped at the narrows site heading out of Insula proper. Even Williamson Island was empty. Very strange indeed. We paddled through the back bay to take the portage into Carol as it was a new lake for both of us. Portaging felt oddly easy without any flora smacking one's face and shins. Alice was windy and choppy but we handled it. We pulled into Fishdance in early afternoon with time to spare and recreate. We ended up checking out every campsite and former campsite on the lake, following the perimeter of the lake south from the Alice portage. I ended up paddling a few more miles that night as Lil' Grumpy enjoyed some fishing. It was a uniquely relaxing end to a long and challenging day. We stayed at one of the remote sites in the corner, feasted on a three course meal, and weathered the bugs for another night.

~Maniwaki Lake, South Hope Lake, Hope Lake, Insula, Lake, Carol, Lake, Hum Lake, Alice Lake, Fishdance Lake