Portage 250m
Omega Lake (584m)
Portage 175m (crossing the Laurentian continental divide, with a steep climb up to 600m)
Kiskadinna Lake (585m)
Portage 960m (longest portage on this trip)
Muskeg Lake (539m)
Portage 60m
River
Portage 125m
Long Island Lake (537m)
Camp on south side of large peninsula close to middle of Long Island Lake
The night was uneventful but not very restful since my new summer sleeping bag was a tad too light for a cool and rainy BWCA night. Around 6:00 AM or so, Mellie, next-door in the kid's tent started making noises. Before I made it out, James had already let her out. I did notice a faint odor of vomit but did not pay attention. Despite a lively wind, a thick fog lay over the lake, I could hardly see farther than 100m. Off and on, light rain squalls moved through. I started busying myself around camp and somehow got back to the younger guy's tent. There was indeed a puddle of throw-up right in front of their door. Who had gotten sick and would he still be sick? Jim, Dave and I took bets on who of the kids might have been the one. I tipped James, because he ate more than usual, Dave thought it might have been Jack. As the kids emerged from their tents, it became clear that a large part of their clothing and sleeping bags had been soaked. Especially the tent of the younger guys had standing water inside. We hauled everything out and started breaking camp.
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| From 2009_52_BWCA Trying to dry out after a wet night on Winchell Lake |
It turned out James had been sick. He agreed that the steak may have been a little too large for him and he understandably had a ravenous hunger. We made hot oatmeal, which came across very well with everyone. The rain stopped, the fog lifted and there was even a break in the clouds. We spread out all the wet gear and tried to get it a little drier. Hard to do with humidity at close to 100%. We ended up stuffing everything as good as we could and were ready to take off by 11:30.
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| From 2009_52_BWCA Taking off from Winchell Lake Camp |
By now, rainclouds were threatening again and a stiff south-easterly wind made the first quarter mile challenging. Fortunately, we turned north and west as we headed to Omega Lake.
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| From 2009_52_BWCA Ominous skys |
The portage to Omega was not too bad, and the lake, even seen through the mist of gentle drizzle had a rugged beauty, its arms making it seem labyrinthine. We took the first narrow passage leading due west, eased along by those SE winds. The continuous spray of the very fine rain made the paddle seem longer but we made it to the portage ate the west end of Omega Lake in good time. The portage was somewhat of a shock: though only less than 200m long, the trail climbed steeply straight up a rocky slope, gaining about 16m before descending just as steeply to Kiskadinna Lake. The descent was particularly tricky as there was a tight dogleg close to the bottom, right next to a rockface, which was hard to negotiate carrying a canoe. Several 50cm steps on either side didn't help either. I knew we were close to the Laurentian divide, but I had to wait till our return to confirm (in Beymer, R. Boundary Waters, Vol. 2, p.96) that we had indeed crossed the divide between the Atlantic drainage to the Arctic Ocean drainage on this portage. While USGS Topo maps have the divides in their map keys, I could not find them on the online versions of their maps.
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| From 2009_52_BWCA |
As we paddled along Kiskadinna, we discussed where to have lunch, before or after the next portage. The consensus was before. Everyone remembered that I said at one point, the portage would be only a short paddle away. Somehow, in the relentless drizzle, the 3+km seemed much longer, though we were charmed by a pair of loons diving and reappearing right next to our canoe. We were first to arrive, and instead of waiting for everyone to unload, one by one at the narrow landing, I decided to carry a canoe and a pack for some way on this, our longest portage of the trip, possibly to return for lunch, another load and some leap-frogging action. I climbed steeply for a short distance and then stayed level on what was possibly the best portage surface during this trip, but when I got to the top of the escarpment, where I had planned to drop my gear before returning for lunch, I could just not do it. I pushed on and descended in several steep steps the remaining distance, occasionally balancing precariously atop boulders submerged in muck and water and losing 46 altitude meters (147 ft) by the time I reached Muskeg Lake.
I hurried back but by the time I got there, everyone had finished eating and was busy loading their packs. There was hardly anything left to carry (courtesy of our strong boys) so I just grabbed the remaining canoe, which felt light without the extra weight of a pack. I believe that we moved from double-portaging each portage, we were able to cut this chore down to 1.5 portages.
Only Muskeg Lake and two short portages now separated us from today's goal, Long Island Lake. Our rising spirits were to be challenged by what lay ahead. The first short portage was indeed easy. The short stretch of meandering creek was quaint and for the first time, we noticed several types of wild flowers. We also entered the area of the 2006 Famine Lake fire, the most prevalent wild flour was fire weed. The shock came with the next portage: over an active and very soggy beaver dam and then an obstacle course through a very rocky trail. Poor Dave almost fell twice and had to drop the canoe in order to avoid injury. On top of it, the rain had started again with some more force. We hurried onto Long Island Lake, ominously flanked by the remnants of burnt trees. As we rounded the exit of the first bay, first Colin and Max and then James and Jim got stuck on a submerged rock. It is hard to anticipate obstacles on such a large body of water. Heading towards the island with the first camp site, I saw from afar that it was occupied, two guys fishing from shore, stone-faced, not returning our wave as we passed them. When I entered the strait leading to the site we had picked for the night, I also notice that the site on the island across from it was taken, too. I hoped sincerely that we would not have to move on, everyone was exhausted and wet, we needed to put up camp. Fortunately, I needn't had to worry, the site was available. Initially, it seemed like a second rate site since there was not much open shoreline. But the campsites level, good-sized and, more importantly, there were plenty of trees where we could stretch our tarps close to the fire. We unloaded, and after pitching the tents, the juveniles were close to the end. No way we could coax them to go look for firewood. Fortunately, there was plenty of wood nearby from blowdowns. I had not seen smoke from our neighbors' sites but undeterred. Everyone went to their damp sleeping bags rather quickly tonight and was soothed to sleep by the sound of steady rain.
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