Sunday, July 15, 2007

This is a crew that was early to rise and hit the water. We broke camp at dawn and hit the water, backtracking a bit to take the little used portage over to the Man Chain. This portage was just as challenging as the last time I used it - a very steep incline requiring me to leverage every bit of muscle, balance and the occasional exposed root to make it up with a heavy #4 pack on my back. (Even though, I twice nearly toppled over backwards…

I hoped the others were too busy to see my struggles) No worries, they had their own challenges - everyone pulled their weight.. and then some.. without complaint.

The no-name lake we encountered next should be renamed 'Furious Loon Lake' - as we approached the Western end we evidently surprised a Loon family. Mother Loon was wildly indignant about our presence, rising up and loudly protesting in voice with flapping wings. Her husband joined the chorus, and their kids scattered. This lake obviously sees very, very few human visitors.

Honest, we meant no harm!

The rest of the four portages over to This Man were a mess. Three times we were forced to break out my well sharpened hatchet and drop fallen trees just so we could get past, greatly slowing our forward progress. (Note, fallen Birch trees are a lot nicer to deal with than fallen pines!)

We stopped at a wonderful campsite on This Man that my son and I had found several years earlier. I suggested that we call it a day. Though we had only covered 6 miles, these were taxing portages. I got no protest from the team - tomorrow we want to make Saganons.

We enjoyed the fishing on This Man - the island campsite we used featured great structure… and a nifty parking place for our canoes!

I studied the maps again - I wanted to make Saganons the next day but now it looked like a long haul.

If only I'd known what we were going to encounter!

We all agreed to be on the water again at the break of dawn.