Flambeau River 2012-Day 3

On this last morning we woke up to sunny weather, still air and frost. Our freshwater supply contained more ice than liquid water and I had to ask Mellie to sit on Craig's jerrican for a while to melt enough water for coffee. We took our time, got our potluck breakfast going. Pressed the griddle back into service, this time making eggs over-easy, which was less challenging than beaten eggs. Craig had provided some little-sizzler-like sausage which provided the grease coating on the pan.

Weather data and route for today.  More info here.

As we were taking down camp after breakfast we noticed that the wind was picking up again, coming from a southerly direction. That meant another day of headwinds. Ben and I were more concerned about having to face some Class I water with little space to maneuver. But we took off undeterred. We saw bald eagles, kingfishers and a variety of waterfowl along this stretch. Not sure whether they are a little more active in nicer weather or simply more visible.

The first two unnamed rapids did not provide much of a challenge and we barely touched ground. During the calm stretch between the two, we came upon three otters having a little shore lunch, munching on a fish. They did not seem in the least bothered by our presence. They'd probably read about their cousin's attack on a swimmer in the Duluth area and knew that we humans would keep a respectful distance.

Three otters having a little shore lunch.

Negotiating Porcupine Rapids. Not much of a threat but we wanted to avoid
wading.

Porcupine Rapids 1 and 2 were fun to run and the only stretch giving us a little trouble was Porcupine 3, which was very wide and very shallow. This was the only place where I had to drag the canoe free. As we exited Porcupine Rapid #3, we started looking for Camp 41. I thought it was close to the big boulder river right but it was another 200-300 m farther downstream. No trouble landing here and good teamwork carrying everything to the car. After a parting photo I finished bringing our gear up while Ben and Craig did the shuttle. Craig would head for home after dropping Ben off at Dix-Dox.

After I was done organizing the gear, I took my ritual post-canoe-trip ablution in the Flambeau's cold waters and read in the warm sun while waiting for Ben. No trouble on the way back home, we made it back to St. Paul by around 1900. Another great fall trip!