START DAY: Sasaginnigak Lake – Far side

END DAY: Through rivers, back into Sasaginnigak Lake (island site)

CAMPSITE #5

We started the day with breakfast, broke camp, and then portaged our way out of Sasaginnigak Lake into the Sasaginnigak River. Our three canoes stopped to explore a trapper’s cabin that had not been used for many years.

We continued downstream on this small branch of the Sasaginnigak River that exited the Western end of Sasaginnigak Lake and followed this to the confluence with the main Sasaginnigak River. We turned east following the Sasaginnigak River upstream back into the Southwest corner of Sasaginnigak Lake.

This was a tough day of paddling and portaging with seven different portages along the rivers before we made it back into Sasaginnigak Lake. The walleye fishing in the river was phenomenal! Below every rapids one was guaranteed to catch walleye no matter whether you threw a twister tail, Rapala crankbait, or a spoon.

One of the river portages was particularly steep and far worse than anything I’ve seen in the BWCA. While we did not need to use ropes to get canoes up the hills, the standard portage the canoe on your shoulders method did not work as one was pretty much required to climb the hill with hands and feet and drag the canoe a few feet at a time up the hill.

Our interpreter Brian managed to tweak his back on one of these portages and was in quite a bit of pain. After some discussion, we had Brian take the middle canoe seat and do his best to rest and relax while the crew handled the rowing and portaging. It was obvious that Brian was in quite a bit of pain as it is not in his nature to sit and relax while others are working!

We kept a nice stringer of walleye from the last set of falls and Joey cooked another amazing fish dinner. Kyle was our youngest scout on the trip. Kyle’s Dad is a huge fisherman; he’s one of the few guys that I know that has more equipment and spends more time fishing than me. Both Kyle and his dad warned me before the trip that Kyle did not like fish and would not be eating any during the trip.

I am pleased to report that Kyle took a small bite of freshly caught Canadian Walleye and he was hooked; he had two full plates of fish that evening (he’s the scout with the plate of fish and the big smile). After the fish dinner was done, Brian gave us a lesson on how to bake in the backcountry and made a cinnamon roll cake for the group. Looking at the picture below eight years later it doesn’t look like anything special, but I can assure you that at the time it was truly mind-blowing!