Bloodvein River Solo 2015

Thursday Aug 6 – Day 11 Time: 7 hours 45 minutes Distance: 13.3 km I got up just before 10:00am; it was still mostly cloudy with a few patches of blue forming. I was not feeling very energetic, considering the portages coming up this was not a good sign. Had my usual breakfast to try to energize, while packing up the skies had mostly cleared but now, past noon, the cloud has returned along with a pretty constant breeze that was an assist rather than a hindrance today.

There are conflicting reports on the alleged pictograph site on Stonehouse, I didn’t attempt to find it. I made the turn west to Stonehouse Rapids, a group of three rapids involving 2 portages. Part one, rapid #21 is an unrunnable CIV. I stopped at the first take-out and walked the 175m RL trail; no problem to come down to the second take-out, a small eddy formed by a rock wall, and cut the carry down by more than 50%. Spent an hour on three loads of gear and a canoe drag, picking a few blueberries and taking a bunch of pictures, the campsite here is not bad, nice view overlooking the drop.

There is a “lake” like few hundred metre paddle to the RR take-out for the 460m portage around rapid #22 & #23. The take-out is fairly steep as is the put-in at the end, in-between is a mix of open rock or in the trees, at about the halfway point it descends to river level, turns through a muck hole or two before climbing back up to the open rock overlooking the bottom “play rapid”. On the return trips I stopped to pick blueberries which were plentiful here along the edge of the canyon. There was a great view of the falls at the top, the river rushing through the canyon and the CIV below. Eventually I had all my crap moved to the end, I had a quick tuna wrap before loading and moving on. This portage had taken longer than I had anticipated, over 2.5 hours due to my lollygagging!

It’s just over 1km to rapid #24, a CIII with a portage on RL, I went to RR to scout, as HW indicates its tight right (or left) all the way. I started down, hit my spot and had no trouble. At the bottom I was a bit sloppy and took on some water, maybe enough to pump but I had to settle for sponging as the pump was packed away for portaging!

It’s getting a bit late, almost 6:00pm; it’s 4.5km to #25 and then 3.5 further to X-Rock Rapids (#26) where I plan to camp. I had hoped to be there by 7:00pm, now I’m thinking it will be 8:00pm at best. I arrived at #25, a Class IV/III that might have been possible to run, being on my own and it getting late I rejected the idea. The take-out was quite steep. I quickly took a load over, on my way back after the first load I followed some old flagging and missed my turn down to the water; I came to what must be a high water takeout, a momentary shock to not see my boat! Three more fast loads and one half trip back to take pictures, less than an hour in total to bypass this rapid, the last obstruction before X-Rock.

I paddled on , arriving at the campsite at 8:20pm, as I was securing the boat I was surprised to see a man with a fishing rod appear seemingly out of thin air. I had seen no sign of other paddlers but it turned out there was a group of 11 scouts here for their first night after flying in to a nearby lake. The campsite here is huge even without the additional upper level so there was plenty of space for me to set up in one corner. Had a bit of a chat, they were intending to get up at 5:00am and be on the water by 7:00am so as darkness set in they retired to their tents leaving me on my own.

It’s been a tiring day with 3 portages, it’s a bit of a shame I didn’t make it to Stonehouse the previous day as the camping there was really very nice, stopping there on a sunny day and running the big Class III play rapid would have been great fun. At least tomorrow looks like a pretty easy day, one portage at #27 and the rest should be easy scenic paddling. Around midnight I decided an apple and a hunk of cheese was not enough, I made some soup and broke out the summer sausage while trying not to wake up the scouts. Finally off to sleep at 1:30am, Awoke at 4:00am as a bit of rain was coming in the hut window, I sealed up and went back to sleep as a few sounds started to emanate from one of the other tents. I heard voices again after 7:00am, the scouts were getting ready to leave, the rain had stopped, I went back to sleep.

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