Skunk Alert

Mike, my neighbor from across the street, had a run-in with the stow-aways in the tool shed next to his garage. It's hard to imagine how a family of skunks (Mephitis mephitis) could have possibly moved in right under his nose.

When the skunklings grew past the baby stage, the obvious could not be avoided any longer. Often, they could be seen playfully catching the first rays of the morning sun just as Mike or Molly were heading for the garage. Mike sent them scurrying by stomping his foot on the ground while still at a safe distance, but Molly thought it might be wise to start parking on the street. Christian's (not mine) and Sarah's (next door to Mike) cat Elsie made closer acquaintance. A diminutive but fearless hunter who's frequently seen with squirrels and rabbits in her fangs and calmly stares down any mutt in the neighborhood sustained a direct hit in the face, doubtlessly when she tried to make one of the skunks its lunch. She was sprayed so badly that it warranted an $300+ makeover at the University of Minnesota Veterinary Emergency Clinic.

Molly thought it wise to start parking on the street and Mike decided that removal was in order. He enlisted his brother-in-law, did some research on the internet and got going. They rigged a hose to the exhaust pipe of Molly's minivan and stuffed the other end in some hole that Kevin, another neighbor, had drilled in the floor of the tool shed. Apparently those critters have fine noses because before long, the first made its appearance. Armed with spades, like doughboys for trench warfare they were ready for the enemy. When the first head appeared Chop! off with its head, likewise with the second one. But then things started to fall apart, when the three survivors decided to use the weapon evolution had provided them with. Fortunately, they did not score a direct hit, but the poison-gas cloud enveloped them. Somehow, they had forgotten their gas masks in the bunker.

Animal control took care of the remaining ones, showing how it's done correctly. They trapped the critters, stuffed the traps in a plastic bag and gassed them with exhaust from their truck.

I always worry that my dog will get sprayed. I often run early in the morning through wooded areas of Como Park and, judging by the smell, skunks do live there. Mellie's off leash but I make darn certain that she heels when I notice that aroma. It would be worse if something like this should happen on a back country trip, I certainly would care to share a tent with a fouled dog, like my colleague Sheli had to do when her lab was sprayed in front of their tent during a weekend trip to southern Maine. Sheli's dog had awoken in the middle of the night, gone berserk and wormed its way out where the zippers of the tent door were not quite closed, only to meet a skunk that had no intention to back away. Sheli's husband had to drive 10 miles to an all-night convenience store to get some home remedies such as tomato juice, dish washing soap, etc. Since everything I have seen about deskunking indicates that time is of the essence, it must be that two-times 10 mile trip delay is why Sheli's dog had still a faint skunk odor,  several months later especially when wet.

Elsie survived, as did Mike et al. The skunk adventure was not cheap, counting the the vet bill, the new concrete shop floor Mike felt compelled to pour and the big scrape Mike's new Buick sustained while being parked on the street instead of in the garage. But as the saying goes: time heals all wounds, including smelly ones.

Manigotagan River Trip: Conclusions

Some thoughts about our trip on the Manigotagan River, planning, gear, etc.

• Trip to and from from St. Paul, MN: a little more than 1000 km (600 miles) or 10 hrs. to Manigotagan Village, 12 hrs to Quesnel Lake/Caribou Landing
• Livery charge to Caribou Landing, C&M Shuttle Service, CAD 100. Service nice and accommodating. Charles & Marilyn Simard Ph: (204) 363-7355, Fax: (204) 363-7812, or Chico Simard (204) 363-7535. The last 10 km of the trail is very rough, deep potholes, erosion and some rocks. Our Honda Odyssey bottomed out several times, glad I did not take the Pontiac Vibe, as I had intended to do.
• Trip distance on river, incl. portages, 65 km (40 miles)

• Portage trails were typically well marked and in good shape. A couple of times directions on the write up or in book were wrong as to side of river. Some were muddy due to abundant rains and springs. All were short, the longest we had was 450 m (90 rods), most were between 100 and 150 m. Easy when compared to our BWCA trips. 
• Campsites were very nice, most had firewood stacked. How cool is that? Good fire boxes with grates. We saw one site where the fire box was under water due to the high river levels.
• Rapids and falls: even small rapids were noticeable by the noise of the rushing water, the thunder of big rapids and falls could be heard at least 500 m away. Portage take out well marked. Basic ferrying skills should get you to the correct side of the river.

Gear:

• Galyan's Woodsman III. Handled mostly well, turns that should have been quick were a little sluggish, but it tracks well on flat water.  A good compromise on a trip like this. Stern and bow suffered some abuse, I will install Kevlar skid plates, probably from Northwest Canoe.
• Katadyn Pocket water filter. During previous trips, we managed to break two water filters, a Katadyn Hiker Pro (broken input nipple) and a Katadyn Vario (broken pump handle axle). For neither I considered that we had been abusive or unnecessarily rough. Fortunately I had bought both at REI and they exchanged, no questions asked. Because I don't like to boil water, I decided to spend a little more and bought the Pocket. What a difference, this is a solid piece of equipment, stainless steel and unbreakable plastic. As easy to use as a bicycle pump. Cleaning is easy, too. See my review at Amazon.
• NRS Neoprene Work Boots: relatively inexpensive and comfortable if you are in and out of the water all they long. During portages, they felt like hiking boots. They never dried out during the trip, but they protected my feet very well. I read reviews about the very snug fit and bought a 13 where I typically wear a 12. Wore them with a thick pair of wool socks. 
• SealLine Eco-See dry bag. Brought this to protect my photographic equipment. It did the job but I was worried about puncturing it the entire time as the material is rather lightweight. I liked the transparency of the back so I did not have to fish in the dark. I have three of their Boundary Packs, which I love for their sturdiness, waterproof properties, comfort during portages and volume. I think I will have to exchange this for a Pelican Case or maybe one of the other SealLine products, like one of their Urban Backpacks.

SealLine Boundary Packs, Eco-See bag and NRS boots being tested.

Manigotagan River Trip 5: Poplar Falls to Hwy 304 at Wood Falls

Tent at Poplar Falls campsite, sunrise before the storm

View Manigotagan 4 in a larger map

I awoke bright and early on what appeared to be a beautiful morning. Sure enough, light clouds and sunshine at 5:30. I got my cup of coffee going and planned to give James another hour of sleep while I kept diary. I decided to bring one of the crude benches to the top of the hill to have a better view. But by the time I got situated, the weather had turned. A bank of dark clouds had appeared pactically out of nowhere and I decided to give the tent a rattle to get James going. He must have heard the urgency in my voice because he got up without further delay. Forgotten were our plans for a leisurly breakfast and slow paddle back to Manigotagan village. I am afraid that we made a disorderly retreat in front of the approaching storm. By the time we were taking down the tent, the first heavy raindrops had turned into a steady rain and James needed to weigh down the tarp to prevent it from flying away. We threw our kitchen, clothing, camping and other gear into the packs and got going, by now in a downpour with non-stop inter-cloud lightning overhead.

We hopped into the canoe and got going. Thunder and lightening never quite stopped, fortunately the electricity stayed in the clouds. The rain eventually abated and we were eagerly listening for Wood Falls. Not surprisingly, we heard it from quite a distance. We soon were at the landing and while James took care of bringing the gear road side, I walked the 1 km or so to the Simards. Their yard had filled with cars from other paddlers. Marylin told me later there were 15, more than they had ever had at one time. But first, I needed to get someone to get out. The house was eerily quiet and my timid knocking did not sollicit a response. Only when my knocking turned into banging did I hear somebody stir. At 8:15 on a Saturday morning, everyone was still asleep. But Marilyn finally came gave me our keys and moved a truck that was blocking the yard entrance out of the way. After a quick thank you and good byes, I headed back to the landing and James. He had done a fine job setting up everthing by the road and in no time, the car was packed, the canoe strapped on and I had taken my final bath in the river. Refreshed, cleansed and with clean clothes I was ready for the trip. But here came Marylin to drop of a provincial park survey about the trip, which was now over, exept for the drive back to St. Paul.

The drive was uneventful. We left at around 9:00. Wind was still blowing from the south, this time to our disadvantage. I noticed when I stopped to refuel, amazing what a headwind does when your with canoe, on the water or on the cartop. The border crossing was almost like back home between Belgium and Germany, in the olden days. "Hi, where from, where to, what's your business (with an upward glance at the canoe), have a safe trip." 30 seconds, that was it. We had a safe trip and arrived back home in S. Paul at 19:00.

Manigotagan River Trip 4: Sand River Falls to Poplar Falls

View Manigotagan 3 in a larger map

It wasn't till 1:00 in the morning that the storm let lose. I had been hearing distant thunder and seen the lighting. As the storm moved in I was almost relieved when I heard the first heavy drops of rain hit the tent. Thunder and lighting were nearly constant, but they seemed always at a distance. I did not go out to check, but I am pretty sure that the lightning was the cloud-to-cloud type. Except for the occasional gentle gust, there wasn't much wind. What worried me was the deluge-like rain that fell non-stop for at least an hour. I started to obsess about the canoe, which I had failed to secure to some trees. But it was about a meter above river level and the valley was not narrow. did I really need to worry? I ended up not braving the rain and dozed off, occasionally waking from another downpour. I awoke at 6:00 and my first look was to the canoe storage. It was still there, just as I had left it. I did notice that the water level was about 10 cm higher than the previous night and Sand River Rapids had an angrier ring to it. I said earlier that I am a one-cup-o-coffee guy, but this morning I made two.

Camping haute cuisine: spamwich or spamini?

James was hard to rouse. We had a fried spamwich (or spamini?). Funny how you wolf down things during a backcountry trip that you'd otherwise hardly consider. By 10:00 we were ready to shove off.



We set up our run along the left bank of the river and it went very well. The rocks below the rapids were mostly submerged and we left them on our right.



Then  followed by Joe Steele, Flour and Emma Janes Rapids separated by quiet stretches. We came across an old boiler, artifact of the days when mining and logging was common along the Manigotagan.

Old boiler, part of the alligator mining machine
and artifact of the Manigotagan's boom days

This rock ledge looks sort of like an alligator ...

Boiler Rapids (aka Rifle or Boulder Rapids) looked a little more intimidating but we felt we were ready. We went right down the middle, hit a couple of standing waves and took on a hand full of water. Bailing was in order. I was glad that 90% of our gear was secure in waterproof bags.



Onion Patch Rapids with its sharp right-angle and the pink granite was fun, too. By now, zipping through was routine.



Unfortunately, this was our last runnable rapids of the trip. Remaining were Old Woman Falls, Poplar Rapids and Poplar Falls.

Old Woman Falls is peculiar in that the shortest way to portage is across an island in the middle of the falls which also holds a campsite without toilets. In order to use the facilities, one would need to paddle to the campsite river right. I imagine this during a bout with girardia or food poisoning after eating some campy meat. We lifted our gear across and James, intending to assume the Little Mermaid pose over the falls river left had a close brush with death, or at least he felt so. While loading up post-portage, the canoe bounced happily in the outflow of the falls. We headed on for Poplar Rapids.

From the documentation I had, both the Wilson/Aykroyd book and the Manitoba Eco-Network write-up, I could not tell whether we would meet just Poplar Falls or both Poplar Falls and Poplar Rapids. The topo map was very clear that there were two rapids between us and the take-out. It turned out that the first was Poplar Rapids (not runnable, by us at least) and the second was Poplar Falls (definitely not runnable). At Poplar Falls we made camp, just off the portage trail, river right. For the first time no campfire wood but two benches and a table. The site was pretty overgrown but we found a nice site on top of the hill.

After pitching tents and doing the most necessary camp shores we hopped in the water. It was so great to cool off and feel clean. I even used the filter pump while in the water.

James, taking a dip above Poplar Falls

Supper was risotto Alfredo with salmon. James didn't think much of it but I ate every last bit. James was more fond of the s'mores. The flies drove us into the tent, stuffy in the heat. It sure felt like another storm but the night was quiet. No worries about a run-away canoe, either, it was tied to a tree off the portage trail, at least 50 m away from the water.

Manigotagan River Trip 3: Elbow Rapids to Sand River Falls

View Manigotagan 2 in a larger map

I got up at 5:30 to broad daylight and enjoyed the early morning hour with a good cup of Dunn Bros. coffee. Bringing my Bialetti coffee maker may seem like an extravagance but for a one-cup-a-day guy like me it makes sense to make that cup count. The coffee maker takes even less room than my 1 l French press. After a breakfast of oatmeal, we broke camp and portaged instead of attempting a run of Elbow Rapids. We decided to get used to paddling a little more.

The Wendigo seems angry...

The next set was Wendigo Rapids, it was also the longest portage of the trip, about 450 m. Overall, portaging seemed much easier during this trip when compared to any of our BWCA trips. This was mostly due to the relatively short length of the portages. Even Turtle Falls, noted as a "difficult" portage seemed easy to us. One odd thing was that here, like with many other portage put-ins, potential staging areas were flooded and the canoe would be sitting amongst some trees rather than at river's edge.

Below Wendigo Rapids

On the quiet stretch between Turtle Falls and Kettle Rapids we saw a family of mergansers. Birds were the primary wildlife in evidence. Besides mergansers we saw wood ducks, green mallards, a few Canada geese, turkey buzzards and many bald eagles. Many song birds as well, but they were more difficult to identify. Other than birds we only saw traces of wildlife, like scat, tracks and game trails. The odd splah of a beaver's tail.

Kettle Rapids looked fairly tame

Kettle Rapids was to be the first documented and named rapid with a portage that we decided to run. We scouted the ideal route, made sure that our gear was secured and hopped in for the fun. Due to his position in the stern of the canoe, James was splashed, but that was the extent of the damage. Great fun and we were definitely ready for more.

A few minutes after passing Kettle Rapids we came on a bald eagle having a shore lunch on top of a beaver lodge. We could not quite make out what he was eating but it must have been something good, a turkey vulture was waiting for the leftovers. When the eagle flew off as we floated by, he took the remains of whatever he was eating along.

Next were portages around two major obstacles, Charles and Pillow Falls. The thunder of either could be heard while still well upstream and we made sure to see and head for the portage take-outs. At Charles Falls we hit the wrong side of the stream, an inviting looking campsite where we had our lunch. After looking for a way down in vain, we ferried back to the correct take-out point, river right.

Hurrying around Pillow Falls

Pillow Falls was awesome with its masses of water flowing over the edge unobstructed by any boulders.

Many of the other documented rapids, like e.g. Perry Davis Rapids were barely more than swifts due to the high water level.

We certainly did not have to work hard to keep moving. We passed Charlie Simard's cabin, an inviting looking place. Marilyn had told us to feel free to visit and that many a party had used the cabin to dry out after rain or after capsizing. But we kept moving along.

Campsite at Sand River Falls

By 15:30, just after the sun began breaking through the clouds we were at Sand River Falls and decided to call it a day. We pitched our tent had a snack of Ramen noodles and a nice siesta. I took a bath above the rapids, washing off the sweat and grime of the day. Wonderfully refreshing! For dinner we had chicken alfredo with gnocci. Excellent! The only thing lacking was a nice glass of red wine. Lemonade had to do the job and s'mores for dessert.

Fixing s'mores at Sand River Falls

After some good s'mores James turned in for the night, it wasn't much later than 20:00. I am guessing rap withdrawal, caffeine withdrawal and friend withdrawal topped off by a good dose of fresh air. I cleaned up the campsite, making sure that everything was stored in waterproof bags. I noticed some quite innocent looking smallish cumulonimbus. However small and however innocent looking, it made me take another look at the campsite. A thunderstorm was definitely possible. Canoe well above the river, everything packed away, tent in a location with decent drainage, I thought we'd be in decent shape for a possible storm. I went to bed at around 22:00, the air inside and out of the tent heavy and very warm and eerily still.