David and Enid's Travels

Awoke about 6:40.  It sounded windy out, but it was not raining.  The wind was from the north east, so for the most part was behind us today, as we paddled on our last day to end at Slim’s Camp on Sokatisewin Lake.

Since we didn’t expect Enid until about 1 or 2 pm, we felt that we had time to go fishing.  After breakfast and packing we started fishing at 8:30.  Graeme caught a very tiny jack, maybe 6 inches long.  Then not too long after that he caught a small jack, but at least big enough to keep.  We fished for a long time, then crossed the river and I finally caught one. It was only about a foot long though so we released it.  We kept fishing until about 10:15, when we finally quit, and it wasn’t a very productive fishing outing.

After cleaning the fish, and loading the canoe we got away at 10:45.  The wind and the current pushed us along quickly, at times up to almost 12 km/hr.  We stopped at a very small point for lunch.  It wasn’t very large, and it was hard to land in the current. As we were eating a large boat went by.  It had a very quiet motor, but a very large wake, and was carrying a purple plastic “porta potty” (probably an outhouse) towards the north.

After lunch we had to paddle into the wind a bit, but it was never too strong.  We got in to Slim’s camp and saw the Tahoe parked there.  We couldn’t see Enid, but just as we landed she came out (she’d been sleeping).  After loading the gear we drove back to PA.  It is a very long drive, but we were back by just before 8 pm, and got everything unloaded.

Paddled 15.43 km

Paddling in the rain

About 5 am I heard misting rain, or so I thought as it woke me from sleep.  It stopped almost right away, so then I thought perhaps it was just the sound of bugs on our tent, because there were a lot of them.  However it did start to rain, suddenly, and hard just about 6 am.  I got the tent shut up just in time, before the downpour started.

Graeme and I both rolled over and tried to go back to sleep.  We dozed, but didn’t sleep soundly until we got up at 7:30 in what seemed like a lull in the rain.  I just managed to get the tarp set up before a real deluge started.  I sat under the tarp for a while getting things organized for breakfast, then Graeme joined me after he had organized the tent.

It stopped raining long enough that we were able to get the tent down without getting it too wet.  We packed the fly in a separate garbage bag, because it was soaked.  Then we finished packing under the tarp, took it down and were off in the rain about 9:30.

It didn’t rain too hard at first, and Graeme actually said, “it’s evaporating about as fast as it’e making my coat wet.”  However, that didn’t last long.  Soon we had several major downpours, and it didn’t really stop raining until noon.  It rained very heavily before that, so when we stopped on a point for lunch, we both found our clothes were soaked, even under our rain gear.  Fortunately it was not cold today.

We shot the west channel rapids (13 U 645453 6159879) by Cameron Falls.  It is a long fast water run, with big eddies.  I took the bow today, as my left hand is very sore, and so it was nice to have Graeme take the stern.  As usual I tried to steer from the front the wrong way in the rapids.  Knowing I wanted to go a bit to the left I started to J.  I realized it immediately, so drew instead, but then did it again just a few seconds later.  Fortunately it was an easy rapids, so there wasn’t any problem.  Forty years in the stern of a canoe leads to muscle memory habits that are hard to break!

There is another set of fast water (13 U 646001 6162035), just at the end of this channel.  I had a hard time seeing much in the rapids today, as my glasses were so covered with rain water.  But they were very easy rapids.

Just before lunch we stopped to bail out the canoe.  This time the water wasn’t much from running the rapids, but rather almost entirely from rain water. Graeme took out several litres of water.

Just as we pulled in for lunch the sun started to break through the clouds, so we were able to stay dry while we ate.  We did take the tarp out though, and needed it for just a couple of minutes as it started to sprinkle rain again.  We only used it for one or two minutes.

There are several cabins across the lake from where we stopped for lunch (13 U 651665 6162567).  We saw a boat leaving from them while we ate, and another small 14 ft motorboat with three fishermen, and a very small motor pulled up just as the rain started.  I wondered what they thought of us under the tarp!  I said to Graeme that their boat didn’t really look safe, and I’d far rather be in the canoe.  They left the point right away, and we passed them about a kilometer down the lake after lunch.

It was sunny enough as we left from the point after lunch that we put on sunscreen.  I told Graeme that we were being optimistic, and the sun didn’t stay out for long, but it didn’t really rain again on us as we looked for a good campsite.  We found this point, and it has a nice area for cooking, though no one had set up a firepit before.  We had to clean out a few old dead trees in order to make room for our tent (there is much more room back further, but it isn’t as flat).  We cut some wood for cooking, and then had a swim.  After that we set up the tarp, which we did by using two poles on the lake side, one of which is fastened to two heavy rocks, the other to an old dead log.  The other side of the tarp is tied to two solid trees.

Rainstorm

About 4 pm we brought the canoe up for use in covering our gear.  It soon looked to me as if it was going to rain, so I flipped the canoe over.  Graeme thought it looked like rain, and our raincoats and towels on the line had all dried already in the wind, so he took them in to the tent.  Suddenly I felt a drop of rain so went to the back of the tent to close it up.  Graeme got the front closed up.  By the time I had the back done it was starting to pour, so I hustled under the tarp.  Fortunately their wasn’t much wind, as the rain pelted down, and I didn’t have my rain gear.  It was in the tent with Graeme!  He brought it out right away, and we sat under the tarp in a very, very heavy rain storm.  There was a lightning stroke six seconds away that we saw clearly across the lake.  There was another that must have been much closer behind us, as the thunder was much louder — but we didn’t see the flash.

We had two or three more very heavy rainstorms before supper.  We commented about how very glad we were to be sitting under the tarp all set up and prepared for the rain, rather than looking for a campsite in these rainstorms.  That would have been extremely miserable.

By the time we finished supper the thunderstorms had stopped, though there was still a lot of cloud around.  It is quite warm out now, though the sky is overcast, and the bugs aren’t bad under the tarp with a fire.  Before we started the fire for supper they were wicked!

There is a small current in the channel of the river in front of us.  We noticed it while swimming.  Now that the water is calm you can see very small eddies in the river.  The fish are jumping and if we get up without rain tomorrow morning, we plan to fish before leaving and take some fish home with us.

Paddled 21.49 km

Camped 13 U 0653256 6156152 (NAD83)

Wintego Rapids (Rapid 3)

Away today at our usual time, on another beautiful calm morning with no wind.  We paddled south around the island, (it was an interesting question as to which was actually shorter, north or south).  We could see that the “antenna” was really just a big tree (and from this angle it didn’t look so tall).  The building had no sign of life around it at all.

We paddled to the top of Wintego rapids (13 U 636760 6160978).  We stopped at a rock point about a hundred metres short of the rapids, not certain what we would find around the corner, and got out to look.  We could easily see where the portage started around this point, and in a bay.  There was only a small amount of current to round this point.  At the portage site there were a few old sticks, but not much other sign that it is used often.  Had we had another canoe with us for safety we would probably have run the rapids, as they were not too difficult.  It looks as if you could run them down the right side out into the edge of the chute (however we didn’t look at them very carefully).  There is the Wintego water survey station on this portage trail, which has a solar panel and antenna.

There was a bit of current and eddy after the portage, but nothing too major.  We paddled on to the next rapids, the first of the three large rapids (13 U 637950 6161738) at the end of the channel, (what I would call the major part of Wintego).  At this first rapids the river swings hard to the right, and you really can’t see the top of the rapids at all until you round the bend.  We paddled out to where I thought we could see what was coming.  I realized that we wanted to go close to the river right shore around the point, then pull in to a long rock ledge that sticks out about 100 m past the first point.  This ledge had almost no water flowing over it, so it would be easy to portage on the rocks.

We turned the canoe to paddle back to make our way to the right shore, and down around the bend.  However, the current was stronger than I thought, and we were not making very good progress upstream. We were probably about 20 m from shore, but I didn’t think we were going to make it far enough upstream to line up correctly, so told Graeme to swing around and go down the river.  As we turned in the current, we were swung over hard and tipped badly, and had both of us not braced hard would probably have flipped.  We did make it around the turn fine, pulled into the eddy properly behind the point and made our way to the rock point ledge.  Here we portaged over about 40 or 50 m on the rocks, then paddled down to the second rapids (13 U 638250 6161822).

Portaging Wintego Rapids (Rapid 3)

At this water level it would be very hard to shoot this part on the right, as it is too steep and shallow of a ledge.  There looks like an easy run down river left, but that would be very dangerous as you would have only about 100 m to cross back over the entire river to get to the right hand side for the portage of the third and major rapids.  From this second portage we made on the right it is 200 m of easy relatively quiet water across to the rocky point that makes up the portage for the third rapids.

David at Wintego Rapids (Rapid 4)

The third rapids (13 U 638490 6161910) in this set (Wintego Rapid 4) is the most spectacular. It is very narrow, maybe 30 or 40 m wide, and there is a large ledge over which the water boils, then hits a second ledge and forms a huge curling hole and haystack wave. We stayed here for quite a while to take photographs.  It is the bookend with Kettle Falls around Wapumon Gorge, the three most spectacular rapids and falls on the Churchill River in Saskatchewan.

Below the third rapids is more fast water, and in about a kilometre a large river wide ledge (13 U 639606 6161432) rapids that has an island in the middle (Enid and I camped on this island in 1977).  We went down the right hand channel, quite close to river left shore.  There is a break in the ledge here not far out from the left hand shore.

We took the south route around Duncan Island (the north route has one larger rapid).  We came to the first southeren rapids (13 U 639802 6159442) that we started to shoot on the left.  We soon felt that there was probably a ledge there (there was a large flat rock) so we crossed a long ways over to the right to hit the main channel.  This was fine, except that at the bottom was a strong eddy line.  We stayed to the right to avoid the eddy line, and got into a bit of choppy water.

We stopped to eat lunch on a nice island (13 U 640149 6158033) at the end of Duncan Island.  Although it’s been burned over, the burn is a long time ago and so most of the area is recovering.  The last rapids of the day (13 U 641422 6158538) was after lunch.  It is an easy run, but quite long.  The waves were interesting, as they formed criss-crossing standing waves (not breaking) making a unique pattern on the water.

By noon it was starting to become quite windy, but since it was mostly from the east southeast it pushed us along as much as anything .  My left hand is very sore, as I must have tendonitis.  Graeme has some in his left elbow, so we were both glad we didn’t have to fight the wind.

After rounding the point at the end of Pita Lake we crossed over the lake to the east shore to escape the worst of the wind, but also because there is supposed to be a campsite there.  We didn’t see anything much as it looked too high, so continued on to this one.  It is big enough for a couple of tents.  The only problem is that there is a lot of decaying organic matter in the line of grasses and willows that are just to the east.  The water level has dropped, and the vegetation is starting to rot, and it smells.

After setting up camp, sawing and splitting wood, and swimming, we took the canoe out fishing.  We caught quite a few small jacks, and threw them away until I finally caught a decent sized one (big enough to eat anyway).  We both had bites, or hooked fish which also got off.  The next one I caught dove into the weeds.  At first I had been able to reel it in, but then it got so tangled in the weeds that I couldn’t bring it in.  Finally I grabbed the line and pulled it free.  There were more weeds than fish.  Graeme finally caught one that was big enough to eat as well, so we took in three fish.  We had a lot of fish for supper, in fact more than we could eat.

When we went fishing it seemed very much like it would rain.  All day a band of clouds kept increasing in the western sky until by mid-afternoon it was overhead.  However, it hasn’t rained, and it appears as if this cloud may be moving off, though there are also some storm cells to the north.  There were a lot of deer flies out earlier when it was so very hot this afternoon, but they seem to be gone now.

Graeme is suffering from the sun.  Despite heavy application of sunscreen his upper arms are getting very pink.  I’m not doing too badly, but it certainly has been warm the past few days.

Paddled 18.93 km

Camped 13 U 0644389 6161175 (NAD83)

Wapumon Gorge

Not sure why we were a little bit slower today, as we got up at the same time, it was beautiful, warm and dry, but we didn’t get on the water until 8:40.

It is another beautiful evening.  It was almost too hot at supper time as we were eating on a rock shelf facing the west.  The sky was very hazy, and it looked as if there might be a storm; however, the sky cleared later on.  There is almost no breeze.  The bees are buzzing loudly in the absolute still evening as they seek out the bluebells and wild mint near me here where I am sitting on a rock.

We got to the first portage at the gorge, after running down the small rapids on river left (13 U 628150 6159022) by a small island.  There is a very obvious bay (13 U 628573 6158747) to pull into above the upper major rapids (you can just see them around the corner).  This trail was in poor condition, not very visible, but there was an old rotted boat at the start, barely there anymore, and the remains of an old pole skid.  I walked across the short 100 m trail to confirm that it was the correct one.  At the end was a newly fallen poplar blocking the trail, so I told Graeme to carry the food box first, and I would saw off the log.  This portage ends in a very narrow bay that opens up into a larger bay about 400 m above the gorge.  Again you can just see the bottom of the first rapids, and the start of the gorge around the corner.  If you didn’t know what was there it could be very dangerous to go that way!

The correct trail for the Wapumon Gorge

We pulled in to an obvious trail (13 U 628909 6158648) that ended at a small rock.  We unloaded, and started up the trail.  After about 30 or 40 m it started to peter out, and was soon completely gone. Foolishly we didn’t stop and look for the correct trail.  I assumed that the trail was just so little used that it was not very visible.  Occasionally you could see small traces of a trail.  We walked up a steep hill to the top of the cliff, and then had to come down again.  While I got through ok with a pack, it was hard work, and Graeme had extreme difficulty and was very tired by the time he got to the end.  Essentially he just powered his way and bushwhacked through the trees.  At the end it got to be too rough and he had to drag the canoe.  He never dd get to the water, but eventually found the proper trail.  He left the canoe where he found the trail and followed it back.  It was a much better trail.  Though not well used so not very visible, it was much flatter as it skirted to the north of the large hill that forms the gorge.  We found that it started in the end of the bay not more than 20 m from where we had left our gear.  We took the second load across that way, and it was very, very much easier.  What we had started following was just a beaver trail.

Wapumon Gorge

We did a lot of photography at the gorge, which is spectacular as all the water of the combined Churchill and Reindeer rivers squeezes through a narrow channel about 20 to 30 metres wide.  There is also an enormous ledge at the top river right of the drop.  Squeezed in by canyon walls, it is one of the most impressive rapids I’ve ever seen.  At the end there is another large drop and huge standing waves and eddies, and an enormous surge that makes it difficult to load the canoe.

Below the Wapumon Gorge

We did get the canoe loaded but about 100 m below the loading spot is a long rock ledge that sticks out into the river channel.  I was worried that there might be a lot of current over the edge of the ledge, and it looked as if we could get through gaps in the rock ledge without having to go out into the main flow. so we tried that.  Unfortunately it is really too shallow, and the pressure surges vary the level by two or three feet.  It looked as if we could get over, but instead the water drained back, and left us hung on the rocks.  Then the next pressure surge hit us sideways and since we were wedged on the rocks, it mostly came into the canoe.  We got a lot of water in on the first and then two or three more waves hit us.  Graeme and I both got jumped into the water and lined the canoe as best we could, though it was often stuck on rocks.  We finally got it to the ledge and saw that there was not enough water to get through the breaks.  Instead we lifted the canoe over, after first bailing out the water.

Not far below this ledge is a rapids (13 U 629587 6158673), though it is not difficult and we ran it easily.  At first we thought we would go close to the right shore, but what looked like a smooth V was actually a shallow ledge, so we had to ferry hard tot he left to avoid this.  The fast water divides and goes around a large island.  We went to the longer right hand channel, but that is where the majority of the water flows.  There is a rapid near the end of the island (13 U 630453 6159151), about class 1, and it doesn’t really end much before you reach a larger rapid (13 U 630057 6159531).  This was easily navigated as we started on the river left, then crossed all the way across to the right to avoid the small ledges.

After finishing these rapids we stopped at the point marked as a campsite on our maps.  We took off our boots and socks here.  I was surprised that mine weren’t as wet as I expected them to be.  There is a lot of fast water in this area, and it sounds like major rapids as we ate our lunch, though none of them were difficult to navigate.  We continued to run several minor rapids near the narrows at the end of Wapumon lake, were it swings to the north.

Since it was calm we had an easy paddle across the width of Wintego Lake.  We stopped at a large island.  To the south of the island we could see a fishing camp.  There appeared to be either a very tall tree or an antenna.  We can’t see it from here though.  We have a nice spot for our tent, though I think that there may be a lump in the middle so we will have to figure out how to sleep while avoiding that (there was a huge rock, we tried to avoid it, but had a generally miserable night’s sleep).

Because our packs were wet from the waves at the gorge, we dumped them out and let things dry.  Graeme said it was our first gear sale of the trip.  We swam in the afternoon heat, which felt really nice, then went fishing.  After an hour only Graeme had caught anything, so we didn’t have enough for supper.  I said we should take out the canoe, and we went a few hundred metres up the shore.  Here I had two fish on, but didn’t land either one.  Then I thought that I had some weeds, so just reeled them in and as they approached the canoe could see that I actually had a fish.  About the same size as Graeme’s but much smaller than the last couple, it was good to have two for supper.

Sunset on Wintego Lake

After supper I baked our first two bannocks.  They will now be cool so it is time to put them away.  There is hardly a cloud in the sky, just some haze on the far western horizon as the sun is about to set.

Paddled 16.44 km

Camped 13 U 0636279 6161106 (NAD83)

Morning fog on Uskik Lake

Up at 6:30, on the water by 8:25.  It was very, very foggy when we awoke.  You could not even see the island just a few hundred metres away.  It didn’t seem terribly damp though, and the fog pretty much lifted by the time we finished breakfast.  While Graeme was packing the tent three otter came and poked their heads out of the water.  He thought they were beaver at first, but their characteristic snorting indicated that they were otter.  I also saw a whole family of Ruffed Grouse roosting in the trees behind our tent.

Mayfly carcasses on the water

There was absolutely no wind as we crossed over to Kettle Falls, and hardly any for the entire day.  Last night millions of mayflies were flying above us as we sat on shore reading (mating, we assume, though we never really saw any succeed).  In the morning their carcasses littered the water.  In places it was just brown with them.  There were a lot of whitefish jumping because of this.

We could hear a dull roar, which sounded like a diesel generator, and though there are a few cabins on the lake, nothing that is a fishing outcamp which might have one.  Eventually we decided that it must be the roar of Kettle Falls that you can hear, and with the low frequency rumble you can’t really direction locate it very well.

At Kettle Falls we first stopped at a point about 250 m above the falls.  You could probably camp here but it isn’t very level.  There was an old fire pit though.  We walked through to see where the portage (13 U 610832 6157277) actually starts (which is at a pole skid probably about 20 m above the falls).  There is a bit of current, but not dangerous if you keep close to the left hand side.  You can land at a big rock and get out easily onto the skid, which we did and then skidded the canoe across.  Since this is a straight pole skid without the plastic pipe that sometimes is in place, it was a bit of a heavy drag.  However, it would be really hard to carry across as the skid takes up almost the entire space of the path.

Kettle Falls

We stopped at the top both for a break and to photograph the falls.  They are very impressive, with a massive hole in the middle, and an almost as big one not far from the north edge.  Below the rapids is an easy put in, but then you must paddle through about 500 m of very heavy current (13 U 611013 6157374) and whirlpool boils to get to the next rapids.  We stayed to the right, and actually ran into a back circulating eddy that was so fast it took our entire effort to go upstream against it.

The lower falls portage skid (13 U 611525 6157599) was completely submerged and broken.  We landed on the left shore just beside the fast water and carried over about 20 m on the rocks.  We left the dry bag in the canoe and lined it down the edge to save the one carry of gear.

We ate lunch on the north end of Nairn Island (13 U 614387 6158885).  Much of the shore here has been burned off about a year or two ago, but the island hasn’t.  It may have some places to camp (it has large sloping rock shelves) but not where we ate.  Some of the other rocky points may be better, but it didn’t look all that great from where we were.  Even though we were a few kilometers below Kettle Falls, we could still them quite plainly.

The rapids leaving Iskwatam Lake (13 U 615940 6159820) were quite easy, just class 1 water down the right side.  There are a few large ledges towards the left middle (north) side, and quite strong current out into the lake with violent eddies, but it was an easy run.

Rapids of Iskwatam Lake (Rapid 1)

We wondered about the rapids to come as none of the guides are very clear.  They mostly say “keep left or north” and carry over on the rocks.  That is what we did.  The first (13 U 623952 6157880) has a bad ledge, that is quite hard to see from above.  You would probably make out ok, though we weren’t going to try since we are alone.  We pulled in on the point where there is a rock ledge, and carried over about 30 – 40 m.

Next (13 U 624557 6158327) about 750 m away around the corner is a second ledge.  This one isn’t as bad a ledge as the first, though we carried around it on the left as well.

Portaging Rapids on Iskwatam Lake (Rapid 3)

Next about 250 m farther (13 U 624571 6158571) along is the worst of the set.  It has a nasty rock garden ledge that looks very rough.  We carried over here on the left as well.  The stones had a bit of water between them though nothing was flowing at this level, so we had to step over from large rock to large rock on occasion.  After loading below the ledge it is an easy paddle over to the side of the island (river right 13 U 624627 6158634)  where there is a fast chute to run.

There aren’t portage trails around any of these rapids, but they can be carried over on the shore rocks.

The fourth set of rapids was on the left side of the large island at about 13 U 624723 6158867.  Here there looks like a V in the middle, but it is actually a ledge.  We worked our way over more to the right to hit a better V which we navigated very well, with no splash in at all.

Now we started looking for a place to camp, and checked out several sites that weren’t great until we found this one.  It is up high, and would be not a very nice place if it was cold and windy.  However there is an old fire-pit partway down the bank, and a good spot for the tent, and nice place to sit and look out over the small rapids.

When we got here there was a huge amount of scum (pollen I think) that had collected in the small back eddy in front of the island.  We went fishing and Graeme caught a good fish which we ate for supper, then caught another big fish, but when I tried to net it, I missed and we lost the fish.  It would have been far too big to eat anyway.

By this time the scum seemed to have cleared, so we had a swim (it’s very slippery to get out here though, but there are a few ledges you can use).  Supper was half our cabbage, mashed potatoes, and lots of fish.

After supper we rearranged our maps for the next part of the trip, and re-read the trip guides.  Next we will come to Wapumon gorge, so we need to know for sure how to approach it.

It has been a very lovely and hot day.  By mid-afternoon there were some cumulus clouds, but nothing that built up to storm size.  It was a good thing we had sunscreen to wear, as Graeme is a bit pink on his arms even with 30 sunscreen.  Now this evening the sun is just about to set, the sky is perfectly clear, and there is no wind.  We can hear the ripples of the water in the small riffles just beside us in the river.  There is a lot of wild mint at this campsite.  Where we walk around it smells very strongly of fresh mint.

Paddled 28.11 km

Camped 13 U 0626003 6158369 (NAD83)

Current in the narrows between Trade Lake and Uskik Lake

We slept in a bit this morning and didn’t get up until 6:30. It was a nice night, and a nice morning.  There wasn’t a lot of wind as we got going, and what there was from the north-west so mostly it was behind us.

Trade Lake though is a very large lake, and by the time we were in the middle of the first crossing the waves were large swells.  Occasionally there was a whitecap, but very few, and the waves threw the canoe around a bit and made it hard to steer.  I doubt that we would have been able to cross it when we arrived yesterday, as the wind was much stronger.

No rapids, and no portaging today, though there is a fair current through the narrows which join Trade Lake to Uskik Lake (13 U 596787 6145994).  We didn’t see much sign of people, until we were almost done for the day, and looking for a place to camp.  Then we saw a boat coming down the lake.  They stopped and talked to us, a First Nations family from Pelican Narrows.  We talked a bit about where the portage was at Kettle falls, and they said to make sure to stay to the left.  They wondered where we had come from today, where we’d started the trip, and where we are going.  They wanted us to be sure and be careful in the rapids, as they said the water is very high.

Very few of the sites marked as potential sites by Laurel Archer are very good, or are in the wrong places.  There is an island across from us here that is marked as a campsite.  The island is burned off so of no value to camp now anyway, but it is hard to see at least from here where you would be able to land.

By the time we were paddling north in the main channel of Uskik Lake the wind had shifted more to the north.  It was coming pretty much straight down the lake, and we were heading right into it.  We still made pretty good time though, as we averaged about 5 km/hr today.  Graeme is now rearranging our maps and said “we did come a long ways today, 3 1/2 maps”.

Campsite on Uskik Lake

The site we are camped at has a nice place for a tent, though it has a lot of mosquitoes back in the bush.  But there is almost no where that is good to cook.  We couldn’t find any stones to build a fireplace, so cut two large poplars instead.  Since there are a lot of freshly cut beaver logs here, we had lots of choice.

We went fishing and Graeme caught a small jack that was good size for us to eat.  We have lots of rice, and we had the fresh carrots, which were really good, so had enough to eat even though there wasn’t a great amount of fish.  After fishing we went swimming.

While we were eating supper about two or three boats went north.  Across from here a burn starts on the other side of the lake, that looks not more than a year or two old.  Much of the rest of the lake has been burned too, but longer ago so it is starting to regrow.

We are making very good time.  Graeme commented about how much faster we are than the outdoor ed club.  He also does remember things about the trip even though it was 16 years ago, for example where Geoff Shynkaruk dragged a jack fish behind his canoe on a painter, and where he lost a fish-hook.

Paddled 38.81 km

Camped 13 U 0604338 6152320 (NAD83)

Inman channel rock paintings

It was actually quite dry when we left this morning.  We got up early, about 5:40, and were on the water by 10 to 8.  There was quit a bit of blue sky when we got up, but it was mostly overcast by the time we left, and quite a strong west wind all day.  Since we were travelling generally east all day, it pushed us along.  With the current we were often travelling over 8 km/hr.

It started to sprinkle rain just before we reached the Inman Channel, and we put on our rain gear; however it didn’t last long.  We stopped to photograph the rock paintings.  They are just to the east of a high cliff in the channel, though the paintings themselves are a way back from the water.

Jump rapids skid portage

There was a lot of current right up to the pole skid of the portage (13 U 559121 6141576).  We snuck along the shore, Graeme got out just upstream on the bank and hung on to the canoe.  The portage itself was very easy as it was a good skid with plastic pipe over the logs, so we just slid the canoe over.

We continued on across Keg Lake.  There are very few places to camp, or even to get out and eat.  We were making good time so got to the portage (13 U 570258 6138354) before noon, made one carry across to check if the downstream side was nicer to eat (it wasn’t) and then ate our lunch.  There is a lot of current coming into the portage, though it is a very large bay above the falls so not hard to get to the portage.  It was a skid once, but isn’t in very good condition now.

A very fast moving rain shower hit just as we were finishing lunch.  We quickly got the tarp out and finished eating under it. The cloth bags got a bit damp, but not too bad.  It ended as fast as it started, so we probably weren’t under for more than five minutes.

There is quite a bit of current, and a large back eddy below the falls.  We stayed to the left side as we went by the island rapids (13 U 570292 6137911), and they were very easy.  After a few more km with the wind on our side now, as we had changed direction slightly to the south, we reached the first part of Grand Rapids (13 U 572001 6135647).  It was very easy to shoot as the water level is so high there was hardly any sign of a rapids.

Grand Rapids portage (13 U 572736 6135528) doesn’t have a very good landing, but that was the least of our problems.  The portage itself started off ok, though the trail was very faint, but after about 100 m we came to an immense field of deadfall.  There were huge logs at waist-high across the path. Graeme had to take the canoe off to get over.  I had to take my packs off and slide them under one of the trees.

This was just the start of the poor trail.  Now the trail was very faint and hard to see. Occasionally you could see an old blaze, many of them on trees that were now down.  The trail wound around deadfall for most of the rest of it’s 500 m. There were several very bad spots.  I got part of the pack stuck on a tree and Graeme had to get it off.  Another time I got the gun hung up in a tree.  At the end of the trail there were more trees down right at the top of the steep hill down to the water. We unloaded all our packs here, Graeme handed them under the trees, and then I would shuttle them down the hill.  Finally we slid the canoe down, Graeme holding on to the rear rope and I guiding it.

There is a very stong current coming out through the island below the rapids (13 U 573883 6135559) as it enters Trade Lake.  We saw a number of large clumps of cattail reeds floating in the water, and being pushed around by the current.  Several floated by us here where we are camped, then would get caught in a back eddy and go back upstream for a long ways before coming by again.  We wonder what might have caused them to break loose, and suspect that the flood level has perhaps broken a beaver dam somewhere.

Campsite on Trade Lake

This is quite a nice campsite.  We set the tent back in the trees a way in a clearing. The cooking area is right by the water.  There are quite a lot of mosquitoes, but far less blackflies than last night.

So far we are making good time, and should be close to Kettle Falls by tomorrow night if we have good weather.

Paddled 31.89 km

Camped 13 U 0574185 613365 (NAD83)

Graeme under tarp at Drinking Lake campsite

Graeme didn’t arrive from Estevan last night — it’s a very long drive — until after 1 am. We did get up though at 6 am, and were finished his packing and on the road by 7:55.

It rained sporadically as we drove north to La Ronge. We ate in the truck at Stanley Mission since it was raining quite a bit, and the rain continued as we loaded up the gear. Fortunately though it didn’t keep raining much for more than about an hour, and it had stopped by the time we reached Stanley Rapids.

We shot Little Stanley Rapids (13 U 533294 6142736) on river left, very close to the large stone that sticks out at the top of the drop on the left. It was a good line, and we went through virtually unscathed. The water is very high as you couldn’t see more than one roller of the roller portage. The rest of the rollers were completely under water. Perhaps we got a litre of splash water in while shooting, though there was also quite a bit of water in from the rain. We did stop on the first island in the middle of Drope Lake and emptied out the canoe — mostly with the sponge — as there wasn’t much water in it.

We had a south wind, and had to paddle into it occasionally, though not often.  The strongest was just after passing Frog Narrows (13 U 537591 6141709).  There the lake was open to the south, and quite windy.

I asked Graeme if he wanted to go to see Nistowiak Falls (13 U 540104 6138712), and he said, “I wouldn’t mind” so we did that (it was the best most protected route across the main part of Nistowiak Lake anyway).  There was a dog at the portage, so we made sure we repacked our fresh meat into the pack and moved it to the back of the canoe, but then the dog followed us all across the trail anyway!  The falls were quite high.

As we approached Potter Rapids (13 U 545586 6140262) we debated whether to look for a campsite, as it was after 4:30, but there isn’t anything available as you approach the rapids.  All the good sites have semi-permanent tents on them . We came across the skid portage very easily though there are some big screws sticking out to be wary of.  There was no one that we could see at the cabins on the portage side (river right) of the rapids, though there was on the other side.

Below Potter Rapids there is a very large amount of current at this water level.  It wasn’t particularly rough, but there were a lot of boils and current eddies.  We stopped on a point just before the main part of Drinking Lake.  It is just coming back enough from the fire (in the late 1990’s) that there are now some nice spots for tents in the short poplars and birches.  There is a good spot for our fire on a large flat rock, though no-one seems to have had a campfire here before.  They have tented here though.

We set up the tent, and were soaked from sweat as it was very humid, so decided to have a swim.  There is a bit of current visible in the water here, but less than I expected while swimming, and it is a very good place to get into the lake water.  However there were a lot of black flies here this afternoon.  We put on repellent as soon as we got out of the water, but I still have a bite behind my ear.  The bugs got much better after we got our campfire going.

We had hamburger, noodles and fresh spinach for supper.  I asked Graeme if he wanted a cookie with his tea, but he said no, so I guess he had enough to eat.  It is a fairly nice evening.  Graeme is patching some of our map case dry bags as they seem to have gotten leaks.  There are a few mosquitoes, but the smoke from the fire is keeping them at bay. There is almost no wind, and it has only rained a couple of times, and then not very heavily since we got in.

Sunset on Drinking Lake

We just discovered that neither of our water bottles have marks on them, so we will have to do some guessing, or make a mark using the measuring cups.  Earlier today I thought that I had forgotten my compass, but it was inside the pack with my hat. I was surprised I couldn’t find it earlier, as I was sure that I had completely emptied the plastic bag it and some of our other gear was in as we left the truck.

Paddled 23.9 km

Camped 13 U 0547145 6139538 (NAD83)