DAY EIGHT

July 9th, Monday, 1949 hours

McIntyre Lake, Campsite on southeast side GPS Location: N 48 degrees 14.985’, W 091 degrees 36.722’, Elevation 1318’

Lakes Traveled: Argo Lake, Darkwater Lake, Darkwater River, Brent Lake, Unnamed Lake and McIntyre Lake

Total time: 8:11

Total miles: 15.5

My body clock was telling me to get up a little after 0400 hours. It was too early to get up so I fell back to sleep. I finally got up at 0512 hours and began my back exercises.

After breakfast, breaking down camp; I was on the water at 0738 hours. It was only two minutes to the 120 rod to Darkwater Lake. The wind was really blowing while I was watching the tops of the trees swinging back and forth while walking the portage trail. The wind wasn’t affecting Argo Lake, so it’s probably another northwest wind. While I was walking the portage I was hoping I would be able to visit the pictographs on each side of Darkwater Lake. The wind could be a factor in seeing one or the other, but I’ll have to wait and see how bad it’s blowing on Darkwater Lake when I get there.

The wind is again out of the northwest and although it’s not really causing too many waves where I’m at, but further up the lake I see waves crashing onto the east shore. I’m a little concerned.

I’ll be able to check for the pictographs on the west side and I shouldn’t have any problems crossing to the east before I get in the open part of the lake.

I found some of the pictographs on the west shore. I take a few photos of the “Maymaygwayshi”, a human-like figure with his arms up in the air and some hand smears before I crossed over to the other shore. The waves are rolling pretty well as I hug the shore and tried to maintain some type of angle into the waves. The only times I can’t maintain the angle is when I round a point and have to paddle east along the shoreline.

I found one panel of pictographs on the east shore. I took some photos of the “heartless moose’ followed by a calf. Before I found the pictograph on the east shore I told myself I would just keep paddling along the shore line and if I found them, great, if not, I wasn’t going back to look for them. When I got back home I read to see what pictographs I might have missed. I actually missed two complete panels. With the larger waves I couldn’t constantly keep looking at the rock face, I had to glance up every so often.

Continuing with my plans of paddling north along the east shore in the waves I approached a campsite on a point just before the turn to the Darkwater River. There was a person standing by a clothes line at the top of this high campsite and he doesn’t see me. It’s too windy for me to be heard. I paddle by their Souris River C-2 canoe that was on shore and I never saw the second person.

My route took me to the east down the Darkwater River to the first short portage. It’s longer than the 4 rods marked on my McKenzie map. I’ve found several discrepancies on my McKenzie map so far on this trip.

I got across the portage after taking some photos and I’m now heading to my longest portage of the trip, 191 rods. I start paddling away from the short portage and I’m about half way to the long portage when I thought I heard a voice coming from the direction of the last portage that I just crossed. The wind is still blowing my way and I listen some more. Next thing I know, I hear the sound of a chainsaw. I never saw anyone around when I paddled up the lake and I didn’t think it would have been the two people from the last campsite I passed since there wasn’t that much activity.

While paddling the river I continued toward the long portage all awhile listening to the chainsaw. It doesn’t last that long and it’s done before I reached the long portage. While taking out all my gear out of my canoe, I kept looking back toward the other portage.

A C-2 was coming in my direction. I could tell these people know how to paddle. They are doing the forward stroke and they are paddling in unison. Something I rarely see other canoeist do except for racers. They are paddling in unison and they are hutting over on time to switch sides. It was refreshing to see people paddle like that, especially in the wilderness.

I decided to wait for them while taking a couple photos of them as they got closer to me. I think they finally saw me when they began putting on their official Ontario Parks shirts to look official for me.

It was two Quetico Park employees, Park Wardens, and they were out clearing portage trails.

I introduced myself to Holly, who was paddling in the bow and Chris, who was paddling in the stern. They told me they flew to Prairie Portages five days ago. They are out for eight days at a time. They came over to do these two portages before going back the other way on the Darkwater River heading toward Minn Lake. They are allowed to use chainsaws to clear the portages, because there aren’t that many of them that clear the portages.

I had a question about an upcoming portage, so I got my maps. I showed them my permit before they asked me to see it. I found out Holly was born in 1980 because as we were talking I mentioned I worked with the US Forest Service in 1980 to 1983. I called her a “young pup” when I found out her year of birth.

Holly and Chris were very polite and friendly. It was a pleasure to meet them.

Chris and Holly started up the trail to begin clearing it while I got ready to make the first trip across. I caught up with them and got around them with no delay. I continued down the trail and met a girl coming from the other direction carrying a canoe. I told her to be aware that there was a chainsaw up a head. Eventually, several people came from the other way with a total of three canoes.

I found out this was another Boy Scout group from Texas when I came back for my other pack and canoe that I left at the beginning of the portage. They told me the girl was venturing. (After the trip I found out that Venture Scouts are boys and girls, ages 14 to 18).

This portage was long and had a few tricky spots, but it was dry. I did a 2 ½ or 2 ¾ portage carry on this one.

It took me some time to get all my gear across this portage so at the end of it I had lunch. I was hungry! My McKenzie map showed this to be one long portage, but that wasn’t the case. I paddled a short distance around the bend in the river and saw no more water. There was an additional portage that I wasn’t expecting.

The wind was affecting me in the western portion of Brent Lake, but after a ways the northwest wind was pretty much blocked. Then all I had to content with was the heat. It was another hot day to be paddling. I kept pouring water over my head, taking my t-shirt off and dunking it in the water and putting the shirt back on. The same old routine! I had to do this several times in an attempt to get some relief from the hot sun. Oh, so refreshing for a few minutes, but it was back to be very hot.

As I paddled the eastern section of Brent Lake this area had been burned over. One of the islands was marked as a camp site and it had been burned over. This site isn’t very good for camping anymore, especially if you wanted to get out of the sun, wind, etc.

I didn’t take any photos while paddling on Brent Lake. The first part was because of the waves and second part because of the heat. Brent Lake just seemed like a long, hard, hot grind for me. I didn’t find this lake visually pleasing, but I think that was due to the heat, the frame of my mind at the time and because some of it had been burned in the past.

There was a group of campers on an island site about a half mile from my next portage in the very southeast corner of the lake. These portages would eventually take me to McIntyre Lake.

I got to this first portage and it was very rocky and rugged leading to an unnamed lake. Even the next 10 rod portage out of the unnamed lake was rocky and rugged. Although, these portages were short, they were treacherous. Even though I was constantly watching my step, I still stumbled a few of times. It would be my guess that no one could cross these two portages without stumbling at least once.

I’m finally on McIntyre Lake. Now that I’m on McIntyre I began to wonder if I could make it to Sarah Lake. It will take some work to get to Sarah Lake and I thought, if I got there, would there be any campsites. Sarah Lake is one of the entry points for permits into Quetico. I’ve never been on Sarah Lake before so I don’t know what I would find.

I begin paddling from the northern section of McIntyre, eventually coming to an island that has two campsites on it. One campsite is on the northwest section and the other is on the southeast. I know which one I prefer without looking, but I’ll check out the northwest site first. Even though I’m tired of the west facing sites with all the hot sun bearing down on them, I see it’s open. I will take it if the other site is taken. I paddle to the other site and it’s open as well. I find a place to land my canoe and pull it up on the rocks.

I grab my maps to see if I might want to go further to the south. I arrived at the site at 1549 hours. Within minutes of my arrival, I see three canoes heading north toward this island. They made up my mind for me that I wasn’t going any further today. The time now is 1556 hours. A few minutes after I saw those canoes, I saw another C-2 coming around the corner. The adult male in the stern was singing the song with the words Black Betty in it. He wasn’t singing all that well, either. The sound sure did travel over the water.

I believe they are camped on the other side of the island, but I haven’t heard anything from them. I’ve seen one of their canoes twice when they have gone out to paddle later on in the evening.

The wind laid down in the late afternoon.

I think this is my best campsite of the trip so far. It’s very large, faces to the southeast, lots of big red pines, cooler and fewer bugs so far. The tent area could be a little better, but now I’m really getting picky.

I’m sure I’ll get through Sarah Lake tomorrow. I have two options tomorrow so I better get my maps out and see where I might go. Prior to this trip, I bought an overall map of Quetico Provincial Park, The Adventure Series. The portage crew told me those are the portages that are maintained within the park. They told me I couldn’t depend on the McKenzie maps because they aren’t updated.