Day 4

Time: 5 hrs 25 min

Distance: 6.6km (43.1)

I was up at 10:00 after a poor sleep. Overcast and looking like rain is likely. Steve is out, maybe doing a run on the portage. I lay about for a bit and then started to pack up my stuff. Around 11:00 I went out, no sign of Steve but one of the 30L barrels is gone. At 11:30 I figured I would check out the portage trail, I headed out with a small barrel and two handfuls. There is a small trail leading northeast from the campsite, shortly the trail headed inland, down, and into a bog. I dropped the handfuls and slogged my way left and towards the base of the esker, in a few minutes I came to the real trail, obvious, well used and clear. From where I met it the trail ran straight up the esker, a little flat section on top and then down the other side. At the end was a battered fiberglass canoe filled with water…. weird? No sign of Steve and no barrel! I headed back following the trail all the way to the water to find the proper access point. To my surprise it was very close to the campsite in a very small little bay, Perhaps due to high water, it seemed there was no good trail from here to the campsite, a short bush crash and I did locate signs of a trail coming from the campsite. I loaded up my boat with anything ready to go and paddled around to access the portage. Arriving at the other side with load #2 I hear a shout in the far distance, it seemed to be coming from the opposite shore! How could Steve have possibly gotten there? We made distant visual contact then I hurried back to get my boat, did the carry and paddled across the small lake to pick up Steve. He seemed very relieved; apparently he had been wandering around for several hours looking for the campsite but on the WRONG LAKE!!!!

There was some hesitation and discussion but we agreed to proceed as planned, at 12:50 we set out to finish the portage, as we did the rain started. We finished and crossed the small lake in a steady rain and increasing wind. The second portage was short, flat and like a wet sponge, it was a short paddle to the right against the wind to enter into the open channel to the final lake. The water was shallow and wavy with a few whitecaps, there were two points that needed to be passed but after the effort expended we were rewarded when we made the turn with a brisk tailwind to take us down the long skinny lake to the final portage. I located the take out, not exactly where I thought, it's another long bog, and we hurried to the other side with a load of non-essentials. In light of the cold and wet and with very limited options we pitched the tent right at the take-out, crawling inside to quickly change and warm up. With great care we made hot chocolate and snacked. We followed that with a bag of Mountain House Chicken Teryaki w/ Rice (ok) and the near standard Veg Parmesan Pasta. Although I wanted to step outside for a stretch the rain never really let up.