Brule, Lily, Mulligan, Grassy, Wanihigan, Winchell

We woke up at sunrise with light rain and temps in the high 40’s. As we where breaking camp and sipping some hot coffee, we could hear strong hollowing wind coming from the north, northwest. In fact, we saw two birch trees get blown over from the wind. One, coming down across the path to the latrine, which I was just walking through 20 minute earlier. Not thinking how strong the wind would be on Brule, we headed north to Brule. 

As soon as we reached the end of the portage to Brule, I could feel the powerful crisp wind slap me across my face! I heard Brule could be bad on windy days, but this looked serious. Our group had a brief meeting and decided to push on and see if we could at least get to a campsite on Brule and wait out the wind. We tied down our packs and made sure our PFD’s where adjusted correctly and headed dead straight into the wind. 

The wind gusts had to be in the low 30 mph range. There was actually mist blowing off the white caps. At times, we where not making any ground at all and the swells where in the 2 foot range, sometimes crashing over the side of our canoe. And this is Brule bay!!!!! We haven’t really got into open water yet! Trying to paddle close together, just in case one of our canoes flipped, we trudged on to the first campsite on Brule bay. Of course it was occupied! So we pushed on literally hugging the north shoreline and resting every 100 yards or so. We continued to check if there would be any site open for us to wait out the wind. Everyone was taken, it seemed that we where the only ones stupid enough to be on the water during these conditions. I believe it should have been 4 miles to the portage to Lily Lake, but with hugging the shoreline and also searching North Bay for a campsite, I believe we paddled 6 or 7 miles on Brule. It took close to 4 hours to get off of Brule Lake. This was the most challenging quest that I have ever completed and we made it alive with no injuries.

Here we come Lily Lake, thank god we made it. We thought everything would be smooth sailing at this point, boy where we wrong!  As we portaged to Grassy Lake, we came upon another challenge. The damn lake was empty, mud, and mush! In other words, not passable by canoe. Great! Another brief meeting, bushwhack time! My brother, cousin, and I took the packs and started bushwhacking a path to the 200 rod portage to Wanighan. I believe a half mile later, we found the portage. What fun we are having! As we are almost back I hear my dad crashing through the forest with the canoe. “F#&%ing unbelievable” he screams! Together we try and follow the path we made with the canoe between us. I tell you, it is not easy carrying a 17 ½ foot canoe through thick brush, at least it is Kevlar. Two hours later we finally made it. What excruciating pain we where in. A couple portages and lakes later we finally made it to Winchell where we stayed for the night. We had 30 minutes left of sunlight. We made camp and had peanut butter sandwiches, hung the food pack and went to bed. Not a bad day for 30 mph winds, 2 foot swells, and having to bush whack ½ mile! Ha!