Tuesday, August 26, 2025: Carp, Emerald, and Plough Lakes. 8.8 miles (8.4 canoe, 0.4 portage). Two portages (330 and 280 meters).

We awoke around 7:00 to a heavy dew, so we decided to take our time getting on the water in hopes of the tent drying some before packing. While eating our oatmeal breakfast, we watched an otter searching for breakfast and one of the swans flew into the cove where we’d seen them yesterday. We were on the water at 9:45, and it was a perfect day for paddling—calm water, blue sky, fluffy clouds, and just enough breeze to keep us cool. As we paddled into the upper bowl of Carp Lake, we passed an occupied campsite that may have been the other party that checked in yesterday, but saw no one. We paddled to the end of Carp and after some confusion caused by not paying attention to our maps & compasses, we lifted over a beaver dam and found the portage into Emerald Lake. If you’ve visited Emerald on a sunny day, you know how she got her name! As we paddled away from the portage, an otter swam across the lake in front of us, then disappeared into the brush. About a mile up Emerald we stopped for lunch at a campsite on a point. While reviewing her map, Tia thought her compass wasn't pointing north, but didn’t pay much attention to it. Back in the canoe after lunch, however, both our compasses did strange things, with the needles swinging back and forth as we left the point. When we were a hundred feet or so off the point, the needles settled, and we could orient our maps to get to the portage into Plough. Has any reader experienced this in Emerald (see map for location)? Any ideas about the cause? We wondered about significant iron deposits, or some big piece of logging equipment under water.

It appeared that the portage between Emerald and Plough saw far more moose than people in 2025. We saw moose tracks the full length of the portage, and the trail corridor was overgrown. Plough is a long, skinny lake, and we only knew of one campsite on it. While the site’s rating wasn’t so great, stopping at 3:20 made more sense than hitting an unfamiliar 810-meter portage that late in the day, so Plough was home for night two. Rain was in the forecast, so we took extra care to set up a dining fly and stow gear.