Tuesday, September 03, 2024: Back to Agnes. 8.1 miles (7.2c, 0.9p), 4 portages (160, 170, 360, and 400m). Kawnipi, no name, Anubis, Bird, and Agnes Lakes.

When the wind began blowing as we ate breakfast this morning, we knew we were in for a hard day of paddling. Usually we have some calm water early in the day, and we had hoped to take advantage of that morning calm to leave Kawa Bay and enter McVicar Bay. We chose today's route to avoid rough water on Kawnipi, but paddled into headwinds all day.
The two portages between Kawnipi and Anubis were short and easy-the challenge was finding the first one along the west shore of McVicar Bay, but the navigation technique described on Day 4 took us straight to the landing. Anubis was tough paddling-headwinds still-and we were relieved to paddle into a sheltered bay on its southwest end that held the portage landing as well as hosting another pair of Trumpeter Swans. Bird Lake wasn't as windy as Anubis, but we were still happy to reach the portage into Agnes. Its landing looked poor, but some looking around yielded a better landing that only needed some trimming-we were very glad to have included our 10” Corona saw in this year's gear, as in the past couple years we hadn't used it much, and we had considered leaving it at home. The portage included one of the teasers that tempts you to put the canoe in the water, load the packs, and paddle off. Don't fall for this ploy, or you'll paddle back to the spot you put in, unload and shoulder the packs, shoulder the canoe and get back on the trail you should have followed!
Even when we put in on Agnes we had another obstacle-a large pine had fallen across the channel, and during higher water levels someone had cut the tip off. We couldn't paddle past it, so cut another 18” off the top to clear the shallower channel. This put us into Agnes' northeast arm, which was exactly the wind tunnel we expected. We paddled hard until we spotted a sheltered lunch stop. After lunch we had hoped to make it to the nice campsite in the cove that includes the portage into Reid, but didn't dare cross the big water of Agnes in the wind. In the wind shadow of the big island between the east and west channels of the Agnes River we found a nice campsite and called it an early day. We pulled our gear and canoe onto the site, then lay on a sunny rock for 30 minutes before setting up camp. The site is a perfect staging area for tomorrow's paddle across Agnes if we're lucky enough to have a calm morning. We set up another bathtub, washed bodies and rinsed clothes, set up the bear bag hang, pitched and outfitted the tent, had hot drinks and appetizers, then cooked a great turkey, white bean, and kale soup. Tia was exploring the site and found a cool old scotch bottle with an unusual resealing lid. And the site has a great northern view, so we're again hoping for a second light show.