Sunday, June 01, 2025

After a kind of restless night, we awoke had some snacks and hit the water a little before 8:00. We stopped to check out the Pictos on Crooked.

From there we made our way to Lower Basswood falls. It was roaring. The Forest Service was set up in camp 1548 as a base camp for fighting the Horse River Fire. When we eventually made our way into the Horse River we could hear chainsaws, from what I assume were cutting containment lines. Onwards to the Horse River. In all my years in the BW and trips up to Crooked, I've never been on the Horse River. As a former kayak racer, I always preferred paddling and we'd just jump on Basswood and fly up. In this case, to make what I felt like was the more difficult route, we chose the Horse River. Now I tell you that to tell you this...there are a number of rapids on the Horse, some marked on maps, some not. I don't know if they're paddlable under higher water or not. I also don't know if there are portages around these unmarked rapids or not. We came to them and they were a surprise and we opted to just wade and push/pull the canoe through. Horse lake was uneventful, other than more wind. It's a phenomenon that should really be studied - how it's possible that 90 plus percent of the time you'll be paddling into the wind in the BW. You can switch directions 4 times in a day and be paddling into the wind every time. Someone needs to study this.

The lakes between Horse and Mudro went by rather quickly and we exited. Stopped by the boathouse for a beer and burger, well for me, water and burger for my kid. Absolutely fantastic trip - I loved every minute of it.