Lakes Visited: Lonely, Sturgeon, Bentpine Creek, March Lake, Bentpine Lake

Miles Paddled: 17.1 miles

Miles Portaged: 2 miles

Total Miles: 19.1 miles

Total Trip Miles: 56.8 miles

I didn't see another paddler today.

The wind was again on my side today. The crossroads of Lonely Lake gave several options of routing into Yeh and Little Jean/Jean or tackling Sturgeon and routing myself up for another option once I hit Bentpine. The wind speed and direction caused me to chose Sturgeon.

The portages and creek travel from Lonely into Sturgeon were uneventful. The second portage crossed through the 2021 burn. Once on Sturgeon the 2021 fire was evident with varied levels of destruction. I fished the narrow section between the two large bodies of water with nothing significant to report - just some bass and pike.

I stopped at campsite JJ for a break at 1130, but it was much too early in the day to stop paddling with the favorable winds on Sturgeon. Sturgeon got a little sporty at the south end after the wind had close to 5 miles of fetch to build the waves up. I quartered away from a light blow over my right shoulder with a light white-cap for just shy of a mile. The waves were falling onto themselves more so than being blown over.

I hit Bentpine Creek just shy of 1pm. I was hoping to get onto Bentpine Lake by the end of the day. I stopped for lunch at campsite CZ along Bentpine Creek and explored it a little bit. It had two sites on each connected island (water was low so I could boulder-hop across) and found each to be functional. Bentpine itself looks like a Northern Pike factory but I didn't fish it.

Continuing on toward the outlet, I watched a pair of swans and one of their young for a few minutes - sure to give them wide berth as it could have been easy to accidentally corner them.

The first portage showed about 19 rods but I could not locate it. I tried both sides of the creek. In hindsight, I think it was 10 yards further than I searched due to low water and terrain. Other intel I read after the fact gave others some similar difficulties. I believe the actual portage is right next to the dam/outflow and is more of a incline of boulder hops. I located a moosepath/man path after spying some trampled creek grass on the north side of the creek and it allowed me to get over and around with minor difficulty. I passed by some logging relics - an old busted battery shell, and some rusted metal. I'm sure it wasn't the portage, but it worked.

Overall this area had quite a few logging relics and it was interesting seeing the manmade dams and abandoned logs with chain wrapped around them.

The area seemed very remote.

The next two portages into March were well marked and uneventful. Once I was on March I followed the south shore along the inlet and wondered if the red smudging on the granite was long-gone pictographs. A possible campsite on the east shoreline in a cove looked functional. The west marked site looked less functional.

The portage into Bentpine was just a lift-over and the put-in was a little mucky.

I stopped at campsite 32K for a bit and contemplated staying there. It wasn't very appealing to me, didnt have much cover from the West, and the water smelled fishy so I moved on. I paddled into a light headwind (the 2nd of 3 headwinds of the trip) and took a chance on site BT. I figured I could paddle back with the wind and find another site. Overall Bentpine appeared to have several flat areas besides the campsites marked on the map that would do for a night or two.

I wasn't a huge fan of all the cut stumps at the waters edge - more logging relics that marred the beauty of this lake.

Site BT was open and it's a very nice site. It didn't look like it had been occupied since the closure. I decided to take a layover day the next day.

While setting camp up I could hear the distant rumble of a storm. It hit just after sunset with some lightning and rain. I cooked dinner under a tarp and it rained off and on through the night.

Bentpine Creek:

Bentpine Creek Beaver Dam (large boulder is area of troublesome portage)

Incoming Storm: