Monday, September 15, 2025
My original plan had been to spend two nights on LIL with a day trip down to Frost since I have never been there, but with the so-so campsite I made the call to either find a better site further East on LIL, or push onto either Kiskadinna or Omega today. With the relatively short distance I took my time waking up and enjoyed the nice view from my hammock in the relative cool of the morning.
I Packed up camp and was on the water around 9:00am. Once again I was paddling into a light headwind which was welcome considering how quickly it was warming up under a near cloudless sky.
It was scenic paddle and after about an hour I was eyeballing the island campsite #585. Seemed like a good site, but thinking about it I knew if I stopped there I would be ruling out a layover day, so made the choice to move on to the Muskeg portage.
Based on what I had read, I was prepared for a couple of tough portages before I got to Kiskadinna, and I can confirm those reports were not incorrect. Upon finding the rocky landing to the first portage I start down what I think is the trail with my canoe but after about 100 feat I realize I am walking down the actual creek instead of the portage. I look over to my left (North) and through the trees see the actual trail. I put the canoe down and bushwack through to the trail and decide since it is a short 24 rod portage I might as well check out the other end. I follow the trail and find myself staring at 5’ tall beaver dam. I figure there must be a landing but there is a shear rock face on one side and just dense vegetation on the other…so the beaver dam IS the landing. I head back and this time I see that the actual portage trails ran straight North for 20 feet from the LIL landing before turn East. I extract the Canoe from where I left it and get everything to the base of the beaver dam. I climb the dam with the canoe and packs and carefully balance everything and load up the canoe before scooting it off and paddling away.
After that it’s a neat little waterway all the way to muskeg. Seems like a very Moose-y area and I keep my eye out, but probably too late in the morning for them to be out and about. I see most maps show another short portage before getting to Muskeg proper, but I was able to paddle right to the lake. Wondering if the busy beavers added some height to their engineering marvel and as a result what previously required a portage was now deep enough to paddle. From here I quickly make my way to the next portage landing.
The multiple topo lines on the map did not lie. There were 4 or 5 sets of ‘staircases’ on the way up and another steep decent on the 178 rod portage to get to Kiskadinna. At several points I need to stop and catch my breath. Easily the hardest portage of my trip. The 80 degrees with high dewpoint certainly didn’t help make it any easier. Once I complete the double portage with my large pack I take off my shirt and boots and into the cool waters of Kiskadinna I go. Aaaaahhhhhh. I let myself just sit there and feel my core temp drop down to a comfortable level before climbing out. While drying off a couple of otters poked their heads up to check me out before swimming away.
After a bit I drank the rest of my water, loaded up, and set out down the long narrow Kiskadinna Lake. Knowing at a minimum I would need to filter some more water I planned on stopping at the next open campsite to do break out my Platypus gravity filter and have lunch, and potential stop for the day. I reach the campsite at the midway point of the lake, find the nice landing, and pull my canoe up to take a look. It seems like a good campsite with a nice open area. I prepared more water and had my lunch. By the time I finish the decision has been made that this will be my home for at least one night.
I proceeded to set up camp, toke a couple of swims, and just relaxed. I also tried a bit of fishing in front of the site with no bites before starting the Stryker stove to boil water for supper. Tonight I had what turned out to be my favorite meal – Mountain House Teriyaki chicken and rice. After dinner I set my chair out on the rock overlooking the lake and enjoyed a nice evening with just a light wind to chase away the bugs.
After dinner I was doing some reading before I lost daylight and was surprised to see a couple coming from the west. It was probably a half hour before sunset and they turned out to be still looking for a campsite. Seems like they were already running fairly late when they got to the aforementioned tough portages and had a rough go of it. I could see they were hoping for my site. I let them know that if the other site on the lake was full I had room because I don’t think they would have been able to make it to Omega before dark. They paddled off and after about 30 more minutes when I didn’t see them I assumed they had found the other site on the lake empty (which I confirmed the next day)
It was another clear night, but unlike my previous site, this one was open enough to really stargaze. I had started a small fire out of habit, but it really didn’t appeal all that much to me so I let it burn out before adding any larger fuel. Slept much better as I had made sure to cool off repeatedly in the lake and had the hammock tarp set up for maximum airflow. ~Long Island Lake, Muskeg Lake, Kiskadinna Lake