Temperance River / Frost River / Kelso River
by Hamstirly
We cooked oatmeal for breakfast with the last of the butane for the stove. Unfortunately a lot got wasted trying to start a fire the first night. Leftover syrup from the pancakes mixed in deliciously, After a slog through the 133 rod portage west to the Frost river covered in downed trees we had to perform emergency duct tape surgery on the trash bag. We sailed right through the first couple portages around Octopus either running right over them or with easy lines until we got to Chase lake. This was the first day that was truly hot and we put on sunscreen around here. Around there we saw the first of what ended up being dozens of beaver dams--we had no idea what’s coming. We sit on the edge of Chase eating “Hudson Bay Bread,” recipe courtesy of the Friends of BWCA website. Great calorie dense premade meal for a hard day.
One more insanely steep portage (with bear claw marks and bear poop!) took us to Pencil Lake which had gorgeous waterlilies all over it. As we made it to the far side, I hopped out to take a look at the rapids. It was only 54 rods long, I could see halfway down, and it looked easy enough to cross, so we started through it. Big mistake. Halfway through the rapids got deep and narrow, and were filled with boulders. Too deep to walk the bed, too narrow to drop the canoes back in. Our broken toe man, who was walking the portage instead, called out to us to let us know the portage went maybe feet away from where it got bad in the middle, so we were able to take back half of the portage without having to backtrack all the way to the start of the rapids. On the plus side, another guy found a lost cloth map soaked in mud in the river which he was excited to “pack out.”
Already frustrated by the wasted time, we pulled up to the first 10 rod portage just down the river to find a beaver dam with a three foot or so drop. The “portage” was little more than some rocks covered in grass. Frustrated, we dropped the canoes back in the water and walked the riverbed, carrying the canoes through the shallow spots. This was easily the toughest part of the trip mentally and it spawned a new camping constitution amendment: “no silly voices in serious situations.” One sorely needed emergency poo in the woods later and everything seemed a little easier. From that point on it was honestly just comical.
Those couple miles took hours as we wound through switchback turns on the gorgeous frost river, taking us over probably 25 beaver dams. The river was deep but it turns out beaver construction is up to snuff--we’d paddle up, hop out onto the dam, pull the canoe over, and just get right back in. We made a sport of calling out “Bobr” each time we saw a dam. This section of the river also generously donated three leeches to my feet. Gross suckers make you bleed a ton, but surprisingly don’t hurt that much.
By the time we got to Afton on the far west end of the river the sun was getting low and we were all tired (and yet there were still two more beaver dams on the creek feeding into the lake), but we pushed on toward Fente and Hub so we wouldn’t have to do both the 280 rod portage between the two and the 480 rod portage to Kelso the next day. The 17 rods to Afton proved insanely treacherous, going straight up and straight down a cliff face--sheer rock steepness putting Cherokee’s portage to shame. That one needed three people to move each of the canoes safely down the far side. Fente’s opening bay hid an inches shallow slab of rock we had to pull over wedged between steep cliffs that proved very hard to climb over--with slick rocks and deep water on the far side.
Our luck wasn’t all gone though--the 280 rod portage to Hub ended up being one of the easiest ones of the trip. After an initial steep climb where I crawled under a fallen tree with the canoe still on my shoulders, it was almost entirely flat and I carried the canoe the whole way without stopping. My partner and I sang “Union Dixie” and “Rocky Top” to pass the time. A quick paddle across Hub and we managed to set up camp (site #851) and get a fire going before dark. Dinner was egg noodles with powdered mushroom sauce and gravy and brownie cupcakes for dessert. By now most of our food packs had been spent and consolidated--enough to make the next day seem doable. I stayed up late that night drying my sleeping bag by the fire and got some beautiful recordings of a loon calling across the lake.
~Frost Lake, Octopus Lake, Chase Lake, Pencil Lake, Afton Lake, Fente Lake, Hub Lake
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