George River Solo 2018
Day 6
Start Time: 7/20/2018 12:20 PM
Duration: 5:11
Distance / Total (km): 13.1 / 59.1
I was up at 9:00am, not much of a change in conditions; an updated forecast says calm not coming until evening but only a slight chance of rain. I just have to get out of here, make whatever progress I can and find a sheltered camping spot. I made tea, had a wrap with jam and set off at 12:20, two hours of continuous hard paddling into a strong wind from the WNW, I’m hit by 1 metre waves at about a 75° angle, the wind and waves are pushing me towards the shore where the shallows and rocks only increase the height of the waves. I make slow but steady progress but cannot pause for fear of being broadsided and/or tossed to the rocky shore. The first half of the shoreline is much like where I had been camped, low and littered with rocks and driftwood, the second half is much more rugged and “natural”, small solid rock cliffs and steeply sloping smooth outcrops, the whole area reminds me of Lake Superior on both looks and vastness. I finally reached my turn to the east, a huge bald eagle flew by and I could finally take a rest break with calmer water and a slight tailwind. Ahead of me an esker cuts halfway across the kilometre wide channel between the mainland and the large island to the north. As I passed the tip of the esker the wind suddenly switched from the west to the northeast but remained light.
My maps indicated a possible camp on a small island about 3km northeast, definitely worth a look. I arrived at the island to find nothing; water levels were high, plenty of bushes in the water and further behind some obvious puddles, scattered debris and then some slightly higher ground. I was in no mood to drag all my stuff through even if there was a useable spot 50m back. Further to the east was another very large island with a number of points and what looked like low hills of sand or rock, I was confident I would find something nice there. I came to a little round island just offshore, there was a good flat area near the water that had the bonus of protection from a HUGE boulder, both the island I was on and the big island were relatively clear of trees, likely as a result of a fire in the very distant past.
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I set up the POD for the first time; it was great to be able to set up in a proper fashion, to sit in my chair with all my gear spread out around me. The sky outside was clear and still, this allowed for all the Pod windows to be open so that I could fully enjoy the sunset. I burned a piece of coil to deal with the few bugs inside, made some tea and took an Advil, the latter for my back which had not tolerated 2 1/2 days cooped up in the tent very well and then further aggravated during the hard paddling earlier today. I heated some water for a Lasagna meal in a bag, wrote up my notes and had a look at the maps to plan for the day ahead. Around midnight I made a final hunt for stray ‘skeeters before passing out.
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