Day 4 - Thursday August 1 2024 – Mexican Hat Lake to Jake Lake (7 kms, 6 portages)
Wow. I didn’t realize how short this day actually was until typing up this report and looking back on it. We knew we had plenty of time to cover the remainder of our route back to Leano Lake on the last 2.5 days of our trip. In a stretch we could do it in 1 day if necessary and might have stayed a rest day on Mexican Hat Lake but knew that Rex and Jeffrey were planning the same. We remembered a nice site on either Jake or Lunch Lake from 2022 and decided that we might as well move a little bit on a hot day, and have plenty of time left over to relax and cool off, so that’s what we did. We were all still feeling the effects of the brutal heat as another day dawned under a brilliant blue sky. We were in absolutely no hurry and slowly packed up camp, not departing until 10:30 after bidding Rex and Jeffrey a hearty farewell. It was unbelievably HOT already in the morning and I think Rex and Jeffrey were not even the slightest bit jealous that we were moving on. ?? The first and longest portage of the day normally feels a little manky but today it felt great. This was likely because it was the first of the day, rather than the last like it usually is when coming from the other direction. It was lunchtime as we continued towards Jake Lake over sets of familiar portages, most of them quite straightforward compared to less traveled areas of the park. As usual, the closer one gets to Leano Lake, the more the trails are used and the more attention they get. As we finally exited the last portage onto Jake Lake, we didn’t know exactly how far we were going today. It was now past noon, so we pulled onto shore in a protected, shaded area to rest and have lunch. It was so hot that we all pulled into the shadows as much as possible, even tucking our legs up out of any direct sun. We took our time for lunch before slowly paddling south down Jake Lake, still unsure of where exactly to camp. As we paddled past site “HQ” I shouted out to Harold that I was pretty sure this was where we stayed in 2022. Bill wasn’t as convinced, but we did indeed stay here and decided that we might as well do it again this year. “HQ” is a rare site in this area of the park with some living trees and shade, and we definitely needed any shade we could find! It was past 15:00 hours and the heat was unrelenting, might as well stop, swim and rest rather than push on. After setting up camp, we spent the rest of the day swimming, relaxing in the shade and reminiscing about our many previous canoe trips. At this point none of us were kidding ourselves that this was going to be a particularly momentous trip – it was certainly better than not going at all, but the conditions were simply not ideal on this one. I’ve had trips impacted negatively by rain and cold before, but this was a rare case of heat being the problem. Despite the water being easily calm enough to go fishing, none of us even bothered. This is very rare for our group, as we normally fish almost too much on these trips, often until the last bit of sunlight dips below the western horizon. We spent another evening around a small fire (for bugs, not heat) and enjoyed a spectacular sunset. Day 5 - Friday August 2 2024 – Jake Lake to Leano Lake (20.5 kms, 8 portages)
Our last full day in WCPP was another scorcher. Although slightly less stifling than the previous few days had been, it was still plenty warm! Fishing continued to be very slow as we worked our way out of Jake Lake, through several portages and the small but scenic Lunch and East Lunch lakes. There were some unexpectedly scenic sections of paddling between East Lunch, towards Three Bears Lake. In 2022 we managed to bypass a portage or two via a “seasonably shallow” stream, but there was no way that was going to work this year. Towards East Lunch the devastating wildfires had fizzled out and paddling through a green landscape reminded us of what a boreal paradise this park used to feel like. Originally we wondered if we might stay in Bunny Lake on a familiar site, “KU” that we’ve stayed at many times over the years, usually on our last night. But then we got to thinking. Why not try a site in Leano Lake for once? We’ve never stayed there and I knew there were a bunch of reasonable sites (unburned) that we could try. After lunch on Bunny Lake (again – seeking as much shade as possible), we continued for Leano. The last few portages towards Leano Lake were familiar and relatively easy despite the heat. We walked a well maintained 300 meter through welcoming shade before the familiar beaver dam “pullover” leading into Leano Lake. The wind was picking up as we paddled out onto Leano and headed for a nice island site, “M1”. Unfortunately for us, it was already occupied. This hasn’t happened to us very often but being a long weekend and so close to the parking lot it wasn’t a huge surprise. Talk turned to, “we might have to finish the trip today” as we sought the last chance for a site. Thankfully site “LT” was still available. After thinking it might be sub-par, it ended up being a fantastic site with flat tent sites in the cool forest and an overlook on rock for an evening fire. Day 6 - Saturday August 3 2024 – Leano Lake to the Parking Lot (1.5 kms, 1 portage)
Yes, that’s probably the shortest final day we’ve ever had in WCPP. We left our site on Leano Lake at around 08:00 and 15 minutes later we were portaging to the parking lot. It doesn’t get much more efficient than that! ?? By 09:00 we were driving away from the park with another year shrinking in the rearview mirror and unsure when the next will be. As I’m sure you can tell from the tone of this report, I had mixed feelings on this trip. I think we all did. Although WCPP is still a special place, it simply isn’t the same as it used to be. We’ve suffered several group trips after the 2021 wildfires, but they have been with mixed results, all of them have been shortened due to the current conditions in the park. We talked about our next trip being a fly-in, fly-out so that we can get to more northerly sections of the park that are new for us. Who knows? The call of the wild is always present for me, and the call of WCPP is a special place, even with the remarkable changes that have come over it in the last 8 years.