DAY FIVE

July 6th, Friday, 1736 hours

Small campsite between some narrows on Sturgeon Lake – at 1736 hrs (wind bound) until 1828 hours

Island campsite north of the Maligne River on Sturgeon Lake – later in the evening where I spent the night

GPS Location: N 48 degrees 25.589’, W 091 degrees 43.299’, Elevation 1219 feet

Lakes Traveled: Maligne River, Shelley Lake, Keats Lake, Chatterton Lake, Russell Lake, Sturgeon Narrows and Sturgeon Lake

Total time: 10:23 Total hours (6:02 paddle, 2:11 lay over, 2:10 paddle)

Total miles: 22

Oh, boy I slept pretty good last night. I must have been really tired, but I did wake up at 0400 hours. I tried to go back to sleep, but the birds were singing pretty loud. It was a little cooler last night than the last few mornings, but still very enjoyable.

This morning after I did some back stretches, I got out of the tent and took some photos of the morning sunrise. There was some fog on the water this morning and sky was very blue. So far there isn’t any wind. The river is very calm. It began to warm up immediately as soon as the sun came up over the trees.

I started toward the first portage this morning at 0715 hours and I continue to paddle until 1617 hours when I had to pull off between some narrows on Sturgeon Lake south of Scripture Lake, since I couldn’t continue any further because of the large waves.

Back in 1999 I crossed this first portage where the Maligne River and the Kahshahpiwi Creek come together and I remembered it as being very short and fairly level. I made my approach and saw an opening. After taking my gear out the canoe and took the first pack across I’m thinking, hey wait a minute, this doesn’t seem right. There’s too much of a climb here and much longer than I remembered. Anyways, it took me to the other side. This must have been a very high water portage. I took another trail that was closer to the rapids on the way back and it brought me closer to the rapids on the Maligne River side and it was much shorter. I walked over to my canoe and put it back into the water, threw the food pack in and paddled over to the area I needed to go.

Now I was on waters that I’ve never traveled before as I continued downstream to the north. My map showed another portage less than 5 minutes away where two pieces of land narrowed down together. The portage isn’t marked with any distance. Luckily, when I get there it’s just some swift water, but I don’t have to portage. There was no problem negotiating this section.

Another short distance from this area my map shows another portage to the left of an island that shows rapids going around each side of the island into Shelley Lake. Paddling over to the left side, it appeared that I would have to portage it, so I paddle to the other rapids where there isn’t a portage. To be honest, I really didn’t look the left side over as well as the right side. I did get out of my canoe and checked the rapids out on the right.

It appeared that I would be able to line my canoe down the fairly strong rapids. My Prism is not truly set up to do any serious lining, because the bow and stern lines are actually tied too high up. They are tie to the thwarts at each end of the canoe.

I grabbed both lines while guiding my canoe through the rapids as I was hopping from sharp rock to sharp rock. Things were going smoothly except my footing. Now I got to the slightly bigger rapids and I had to cross the rounded granite bedrock that slopes to the water approaching 40 to 45 degrees.

Well, just as I’m thinking this was going to be slightly tougher than what I rehearse in my mind; I slipped on the slippery, sloped rock. This caused my canoe to slip more to the right and I immediately pulled on both lines. The canoe may have hit a rock under the rapids. When I pulled on the lines this caused the canoe to roll to the left, dipping the left gunwale, taking on some water from the rapids. I quickly eased up on the lines which righted the canoe and it continued safely through the rapids. When I got her back to shore, she had two or three inches of water in the bottom.

Everything had to be taken out of the canoe so the water could be dumped out, then I could continue down the river. This was another one of the situations where the portage would have been safer and quicker.

Rounding this small island and continuing to the west toward the portage that I probably should have taken on the Shelley Lake side I saw 6 young females / ladies in either 2 or 3 canoes. I don’t remember the number of canoes, but I do remember the girls! I talked briefly with the leader who said they were with the YMCA from Ely. They have been out for 20 days and they were going to be out for another two more. They began their trip to the west on Crown land and that’s where they have spent most of their time. When asked if they fished, she said, no, they just travel. I though to myself, basically that’s what I do.

The next portage was “Have a Smoke Portage” that goes around Snake Falls, so I headed that way. The route through Shelley Lake wasn’t that bad, but I did constantly check the compass bearing to make sure I stayed on track. I could hear the roar of Snake Falls as I got closer. There was a small island that was off to my right once I got close to the falls and I debated very quickly if I should go around the island and then paddle up to the falls or go directly to the falls. Going to the falls won out. I saw what appeared to be a landing not far from the rapids. This take-out didn’t feel right so I wanted to scout things out, but I would need to pull my canoe out of the water onto the rocks.

I grabbed my camera and off I went searching for the correct trail, because this one was obvious it wasn’t correct. I would have had a safer time sliding down the falls. I walked the top of a ridge more or less to the north and eventually found the correct portage trail that was some distance from where I got out. There were several trails I could possibly follow, but luckily it didn’t take that long to find one of the correct trails. Obviously, I wasn’t the first one to pull off at the wrong spot. I walked back to my canoe, once again, threw everything back in, paddled over to the correct spot. It sure seems I’m doing a lot more work trying to find the correct portage than I really should be doing. What happened was the island actually blocked my view to the correct portage landing.

This portage was maybe 60 rods and it was pretty decent. I took some time at the end of the portage and took some photos of the different areas of the falls.

I paddled directly west on Keats Lake from the portage. Now I could tell which way the wind was blowing, northwest, because on Shelley Lake I was always paddling into the wind. The wind always seems to follow those narrow corridors. About 1/3 of the way across Keats I had to carefully maneuver around some rocks in the shallows. These rocks were bridging the gap between some land and an island.

Then I turned north to approach the portage around Split Rock Falls. This area around the portage was very rocky. I pulled up on the outer portion, the furthest from the start of the actual portage. I’m not sure if this was for the high water or if this was the start of the portage because of low water. I pulled up just as a teen-age male was putting a canoe into the water closer to the end of the actual portage. There really isn’t an exact end to the actual portage, it’s where ever there is enough water to place a canoe. I was probably 30 to 35 yards away from him. Shortly, his mother came down to their canoe with some gear. This was a family of four that had put in at Nym Lake and they were headed for Kawnipi Lake.

I spoke to the lady and one of the things she told me about her husband, who was bringing other gear across the portage that he canoed to Hudson Bay prior to all the advancements in high tech gear. They wished me a safe trip and I did the same to them.

I had to walk the additional distance before the start of the actual 81 rod portage. This portage has a very rocky beginning. I mean I had to walk the tops of some very big rocks before getting to solid ground. If I lost my balance and fell off the rocks while walking on the tops of them I probably would have gotten hurt. This portage starts off with a better than average incline, but most of the trail is downhill to Chatterton Lake. I did carrying my canoe over this large rock field prior to carrying it with my food pack. It would have been too dangerous for me to walk with both the food pack and the canoe at the same time on the tops of these very large and uneven rocks.

I followed Chatterton Lake to the northwest from Split Rock Falls. The northwest wind was blowing, but the waves were still manageable. There are two portages I could take to get to Russell Lake. There is one next to Chatterton Falls that is longer than the one about a half mile south of the Falls. I planned on taking the shorter one.

I arrived at the shorter 81 rod portage. It went right up until it crested and then it immediately went right back down. The only good thing about this portage was where it ended on Russell Lake at a nice sand beach. I was in luck. I had the beach to myself if I wanted to spend any time here sun bathing, but I hadn’t planned to do that since I’m not really a sun bathing type guy.

I did have lunch at the end of this portage. Actually I went back up the trail to get out of the hot sun to eat. I also filtered more water. I dosed myself with the cold water from the lake to cool myself before I continued.

Russell Lake is where the northwest wind began to cause me problems. I was still able to safely paddle it, but it did take all my attention for the task. When I rounded the peninsula that was north of the last portage I angled into the wind and crossed approximately a quarter mile of open water to get to the eastern side of an island that looks similar to a horseshoe. I traveled up the east shore of that island and then veered to the northwest again heading to the next portage just before the Sturgeon Narrows.

There were three aluminum canoes with three adult males and three younger boys who were at the portage putting in. I had to wait a short time before I could get my canoe to the landing. It’s very rocky and quite deep. The reason I know, I saw one of the fathers slip off a rock and he was up to his chest in the water. They asked me about the campsites on Russell Lake and I told them there wasn’t anyone on the lake and that there appeared to be a nice big campsite on the southeast of this channel. They told me they had come from Olifaunt Lake and haven’t seen anyone.

Carefully I took my gear out of the canoe while balancing on the sharp, slippery rocks. I took everything across the portage when I realized I could have paddled this swift water. Oh, well, this portage was short.

I turned southwest into the Sturgeon Narrows. There was a strong headwind, but the wind was only following the channel so there weren’t any big waves to contend with at the moment.

It has been hot and windy all day. I’ve put sunscreen on three times today. I’ve been drinking lots of water. I’ve been taking my shirt off and soaking it in the water, then putting it back on. When I would put the cold wet shirt back on I would go, oh boy, as my muscles tensed up as the wet shirt touched my body. I also have been dipping my hat and pouring the water all over me.

Last night, I planned on getting to one of the two campsites in the Sturgeon Narrows. Today, I thought if I made it that far, if possible, I would try and make it to the island campsite at the southwest end of Sturgeon Lake several miles away.

I kept hugging the shore line on Sturgeon Lake and finally I had to stop at 1617 hours. I pulled off between some narrows on Sturgeon Lake about a half mile south of Scripture Island. This is actually a small campsite, but not a very good one. I think it’s used in an emergency just like I’m using it.

It’s now 1803 hours and I have unpacked a few items. I’ve had a cold meal, made some coffee and filtered more water. I’m in limbo, waiting to see if the wind lies down so I can continue. It’s hard to know if the wind is switching or not, but since I stopped the waves have increased. There are large white caps rolling down this part of the lake that I’m at. The winds seem to be coming out of the southwest because of the intensity of the waves or it might be following this channel as well. All I know I haven’t been able to move.

It appears I’ve gone about 14 ½ to 15 miles already today. I still would like to go another 7 miles to the campsite I would like to get to at the southwest end of the lake. There is a campsite about 2 ½ miles from here so that’s a possibility if I can’t make it all the way down the lake.

It was good that I stopped here in the narrows because the wind picked up while I was there and then it eased back up, so I left the temporary site in the narrows at 1828 hours.

I had made a cup of coffee, actually enough for two, shortly before I made the decision to go or I would be paddling at night. I put my gear and food that I took out earlier back in my pack. I got the canoe back in the water and off I went down the lake.

The waves weren’t too bad when I first started, but they continually got bigger as I paddled down the lake. The reason the waves were getting larger was I was no longer following the south shore of some islands and the wind had more open space in which to blow unobstructed. My Prism was handling them very well, but there’s always that concern when the waves get past a certain point.

I really couldn’t tell which way the wind was blowing. This morning it was definitely out of the northwest. Then I believed it moved to the west, causing it to look like from the southwest when I was stranded in the narrows.

Sturgeon Lake is one big lake. I got about 5 miles from the narrows and the wind really began to lie down. By the time I made it to the island campsite the lake was smooth. I had been traveling southwest down the entire lake and when I turned south toward the Maligne River I could hear the loud roar of the first set of rapids on the Maligne River.

There was no one on the island campsite at 2038 hours when I got there. I quickly made camp, took at bath, all by 2120 hours. My campsite faces to the east which I like, but I wasn’t able to watch the sunset tonight as I had to prepare camp and there were too many trees to see through to the west. I would have to walk around to the west side of the island to check out the sunset. I just didn’t have the time to do it tonight.

Now that the wind died down it’s hot and sticky inside the tent. There isn’t any air moving. I’m done writing tonight. Got to get my maps out and see where I’m going tomorrow.