Day 8: July 5,2023 Polaris to Birch Portage

We got up early had cereal and started packing up camp. After decommissioning and covering the latrine area with moss, removing the paracord markers and packing up enough to make sure we could get loaded up in time, I rigged up one of the fishing poles and fished from the rock peninsula with a black plastic leech. I caught a couple of bass and Dan brought in a decent walleye. We should have been fishing early in the morning I guess.

We got on the water by 9:30 and of course the wind had started up. We fought our way across Polaris, and made pretty good time across the portage. We stashed the canoe on the Polaris side and staged all the packs by the other landing so we wouldn’t have to try to secure the canoe and come back for everything. We double carried the canoe to the other side, working it between trees to turn and I handed the gear down the drop for Dan to load. We were getting pretty good at portaging.

We fought the wind all the way to the portage. We had to paddle directly into the wind until almost across the wide area of Birch and then tack back over to the narrow part. We turned too soon at one point and felt like we were going to swamp, so had to keep paddling toward the far shore. Nothing was easy on this trip.

We got to the portage right before 11, our pick up time. The boat came in a few minutes later as we were carrying the canoe across. The driver told us to walk it out to the boat and flip it up on the rack. I don’t usually ask for help due to my gender or small size, but I was a little taken aback that he didn’t grab my end when we got close and help get it up on the rack or offer to grab any of the packs. I guess I shouldn’t expect more than a ride, but usually the boat drivers seem to hustle a little bit in hopes of getting a tip which the driver on the way out got because he was helpful. I carried all the packs to the end of the pier as well while Dan was getting the car. I hope he had fun getting all the slugs out of the canoe. Otherwise, we had a really nice experience with the staff and owners of LaTourell’s. It is a nice facility to prepare for a quick entry into the parks.