Day 6 - Cat, Howry, Murray, Carmichael, Grace, Frood, Willisville, Whitefish Falls, Charlton Lake

Big travel day today to say the least. Got it done in record time though. Had myself well organized the night before so packing and cooking was a breeze this morning. Ready to go by 10 to 8. Able to zip through Howry Creek since having done it twice already this trips we knew where the deep channels were. Really do get a visual thrill from those Cardinal Flowers. Murray was as much of a wildlife sanctuary as on previous days. Red tail hawk was still hanging around, not calling out though. Heard a moose crashing through the bush, lots of goldeneye and black ducks. Saw the otters again, but this time going from an active beaver lodge to an inactive one, thought that was strange. In the last narrows of Murray saw something medium sized, fast, brown and furry make a beeline for shore and dive in. Beaver, muskrat, otter or mink?

Easy paddle across Carmichael since we knew it was going to be our only break between the 1470m portage across Notch Creek and the 2 km portage into Grace. Tall, steep ridges on Grace, one even looks like a real mountain. Semi-clear lake, gorgeous pine stands on small islands dotting the surface. Bright white quartz shoreline on the North shore. Had lunch on the last campsite and a little nap before tackling the next 2km portage to Cranberry Bay on Frood Lake. Neither of the last two portages were too bad, maybe a different story in the opposite direction. Both run through deep and narrow gullies between ridges, mature hardwood growth on both. All in all, a nice walk in the woods. All told, about 6 kms of portaging in one day.

Made it down Frood Lake in a little over an hour. Just motoring despite the headwind. A couple great old log cabins along the way. Got to Willisville by four. Asked around and were pointed in the direction of Whitefish falls for a restaurant and an LCBO agency. Stashed the canoe about half a kilometre up from the dam buoys and bushwacked into town until we hooked up with a Rail to Trail ATV road. Managed to be the first customers at the Red Dog (just like in Peterborough) Bar and Grill for Thursday night wing night. Put back a lot of Corona and limes, nachos, onion rings and finally, the wings. The place got pretty packed with boaters and Americans (not necessarily mutually exclusive). Mostly a grey hair crowd with a couple grandchildren scattered here and there. Live Music!! Just a local girl with an acoustic but she sang "Love Me Tender" and finished with a little bit of Bob Seger Night Moves. Great stuff.

Hit up the agency store (a place called Wheeler's) before they closed at eight and got a twelve of Carling tall boys. Stuck to the west side of the river and on the ATV trail on the way back, road beers in hand. I swam the river to retrieve the stashed canoe and then it was just a matter of heading back up through Willisville with boat beers in our lifejacket cozies and off to Charlton Lake. Nice point to camp on, bad bugs. Didn't even get a chance to finish all our beers.

Day 5 - Cat, Van Winkle, Van L. Portage, Hanwood and Back

All in all quite an enjoyably relaxing day, if it weren't for the heat that tapped my energy levels so hard. Headed over to the Van Lake portage early this morning, saw a big red tailed hawk flapping about in the breeze. Spent a lot of time trying to figure out where we could reroute the portage to, tramping back and forth through really thick underbrush looking for game trails we could piggy back on. Turns out they're smarter than that and they use the portage we were meant to replace due to beaver flooding. Didn't end up rerouting the portage at all. It'll either take an insane amount of boardwalk that'll likely get flooded out or a brand new portage on the N side of the creek, nice gradual slope up a tall ridge from which you can see the Howry ridge. Old oak stands, infinitely preferable to the actual portage (this year at least). Lots of game trails on the North side. Off to Hanwood to pinch a camper for overstaying their permit. They were booked for Leech, Hanwood and finally, Van Winkle for 2 nights. Seems he liked the look of Hanwood and decided to stay. He tried to tell us he thought he was on Van Winkle but his lies quickly fell apart under closer questioning.

Stopped for a swim and lunch at Van Winkle, definetely the highlight of the day: long swim, cat nap, watched a northern flicker for a while. The big excitement to report happened last night. Lots of general bush critter activity while reading in bed, mosquitoes like crazy, frogs croaking, you name (whippoorwill again, cranes sounding off before sunset). Once I had put my book down I started to hear all sorts of bubbles and thrashing about in the water, some of it coming from quite close to shore. Listened for about 15 minutes, deciding that the bugs were too awful to go anywhere. That is, until curiousity got the better of me and I finally poked my head out the vestibule. Immediately I heard a beaver slap its tail really close to shore (nothing to do with the bubbles and hissing, just another indication of the level of animal activity last night) while not much further away something was rolling, hissing and bubbling away in the water. Decided that this show was too good to miss so got out of the tent and took a closer look. Couldn't make out what was going on (at this point I was thinking either otters having a party or a writhing escaped anaconda) so went off to the Warden's tent to borrow his halogen headlamp.

Turned out it was two medium sized snapping turtles having a battle royale! One would blow bubbles then the other would launch itself into tthe instigator, biting anywhere it could. You could tell by the sound that the bites were connecting but neither lost blood or limbs. They were rolling and tumbling, sometimes seemingly trying to drown each other, hissing at each other when they disengaged. Eventually there was a winner, for no clear reason from what I could see, and the loser came over to where I was standing and started hissing at me! I had had enough of the bugs by now so went back to bed, not a minute later a pack of wolves started howling and barking in earnest. What a wild night! So far nothing but loon's tonight.

Day 4 - Cat, Howry, Murray, Leech, Hanwood, VanWinkle back to Cat

Have not only gotten used to going to bed at sundown but have begun to really enjoy it, especially when I take the time to consider the benefits. In bed before the bugs do their worst, get to watch the sunset from bed, with a good book (these days it's Nathaniel Hawthorne's short stories from "Celestial Railroad and other Stories"). Lots of sleep for the work day ahead, and maybe best of all, by the time I get up at either 6:30 or 7, depending on whether or not it's a travel day, I've already woken up a couple of times and been able to snooze; to the point where it feels like I've slept in by the time I'm actually getting out of the tent. And that still leaves me with lots of time to mess about in the morning whether it be on first aid needs or picking wild raspberries to put in my oatmeal.

Set out at 8 into a crazy heavily fogged up morning, halfway cleared off by the time we got to Howry and had dug one hell of a crapper hole through sheer clay. Not nearly as much action on Murray today, although I was lucky enough to hear a red-tailed hawk screaming away across the sky just as I got off the portage into Murray. Most disappointing: no otters. Maybe by the time we head back through here on Thursday (Day 6) they'll have rekindled an interest in us.

Still haven't quite pinned down why I liked it so much but really enjoyed the portage from Murray into Leech Lake. Maybe it was because I didn't have a canoe on my head and could actually take a look around. Or maybe it was because the scenery had changed: bigger clearings, grassy hilltops, red pines, jack pines, birch and poplar. Leech L. is definetely nicer than it sounds, but then again, what semi-remote lake have I ever not liked?

Hanwood small and picturesque, for some reason was really reminiscent of Group of Seven Paintings. Van Winkle was a nice surprise, colour a couple shades lighter than Muriel, nice long archipelago of islands running straight down the middle of the lake. Back into a bit of silvery of quartzite, decent size lake too, good long paddle.

When we got back to Cat there were some fishermen in from Bear Lake Camp not far from the cabin. They weren't having any luck so they came over to ask for some tips. The Warden supplied a couple and then they spotted a snapping turtle in the little bay in front of my tent. The Warden (who had just been about to jump in the lake) immediately took up lookout duty since he hates snappers while I went running for my goggles and camera. Last night I read a Cottage Life article about snappers in the ranger cabin saying how they're not aggressive and how, if your lucky enough to have one around, you should take the opportunity to go for a swim with it. I was a little freaked out (hearing the neighbours at the cottage go on about them hasn't helped) but went in anyways. What an experience!

After the warden told me where to look the turtle and I just floated around together for a while blowing bubbles and checking each other out. I took a couple of shots but believe it or not I was too close to the turtle for them to turn out really well. Eventually he turned tail and disappeared, vanishing into the murk just like a moose can into a forest. Saw him again later but he wasn't into swimming with me anymore.

Day 3 - Helen L. to Cat L. (sweet pea central)

Absolutely stunning sunset out the front door of my tent on Helen last night. That site is a real winner. Other sites on Helen are decent as well. Took a detour over to Ishmael Lake to check on sites. Hardly used at all. Saw two ravens flying really close together, one kept wheeling onto its back seemingly trying to get at the underside of the other. Snapped a shot of a heron nest while on Ishmael as well.

About halfway to the unnamed pond on the Helen-Nellie portage I heard some crashing through the brush, thought it was the Warden muscling his way through a particularly overgrown section of the trail. A little further up the trail came across two old school types (canvas everything) who we had seen twice the day before on Baie Fine and McGregor Bay. Turns out they were using a 15 year old map that showed a portage running from the creek N of Helen, around the unnamed and finally joining up with the existing trail to Nellie; f***ing crazy bastards.

Took two breaks on that portage, one to show those old bushwackers what's what on the new map, and the second because I needed it. Nellie Lake is as stunning as ever. Had to charge two people for camping off site and for not having a permit, pricey mistake. The two bushwackers were last seen heading due east, past the last campsite and straight down the lake. Maybe their map shows a campsite or, heaven forbid, another ludicrous portage?! Didn't feel like giving chase, they were moving at a fairly good clip and halfway down the lake by the time we spotted them.

Notch Creek portage was a bitch to me today, didn't slip or anything but had to rest three times, shoulders were killing me by the end. Checking permits on the site immediately East of the portage on Murray, found out that there's an unmantained and unmarked trail that runs from the portage to the site. The people staying there knew about it and had left their canoe on Nellie, smart.

Followed three playful and very curious otters down Murray until they disappeared into an old beaver lodge, thought that was pretty cool, not to mention resourceful. Cardinal flowers on Howry Creek, very nice. A surprisingly tough portage to Cat Lake. Swim upon arrival at the Ranger Cabin which is absolutely surrounded by sweet peas. Also had the satisfaction of beating the other work crew here.

Western Boundary Trip

Day 1 - George L. to Muriel L.

Got an early start to things this morning. Powered up on egg mcmuffins and bran flakes. Arrived at the staffhouse with enough time to change into uniform, rouse the roomate and head over to the office. Nothing much going on over there at 8 am so went back to the staffhouse to unpack/repack. Only forgot to pack one thing: my found fleece leisure suit. Oh well, only six days without, maybe it'll be warm enough I won't need them.

Short day checking permits on George, Killarney, OSA. Killarney Lake for lunch @ noon. Saw a loon with a fish in its mouth. Tried to get a shot of it but no luck. Managed to get a decent shot of a hawk at the portage from George into Freeland, nicknamed him George after the lake. Not very original I know not to mention quite presumptious since the hawk could easily be a female.

Overcast throughout the whole paddle but only started drizzling on OSA right near the last portage of the day. Sharing the lake with 3 other canoes who are staying to the west of us. Park seems to be nearly abandoned. Met a few groups heading out early on Killarney L. Seems they're afraid of a little weather. Only saw two canoes heading into the park.

Ended up bringing the tent after considering just packing the tarp and a footprint. Too afraid of bugs. Final decision was made weighing the importance of good sleep over the the novelty of no door. I might try it on the tentative hiking trip, that way I can argue the weight saving factor.

Found a dime on the bottom of Muriel L. tonight. 10 times as lucky as finding a penny?! Seems logical enough to me.