And Go we did...
Generally you have to get up and get out early if you're going to beat any kind of weather. The winds had died down to a tolerable level by sunrise when Paul got us up and we started throwing camp back into our canoe packs and those into the canoes with the rest of our gear. We wanted to be back at Moose Lake by early afternoon if we were going to beat any incoming weather patterns that would interfere with our exit from the BW.
Struggle again. Though this time was far more workable than the previous day. We still had winds, but they were easier to navigate. Still a little intimidating...especially when we headed out into deeper brisker waters on our way to the portage. I didn't want to. I wanted to remain closer to the shore of the lake where the water was, if not a little calmer, easier to get out of if we did indeed capsize. Paul steered us across the lake, keeping me up on direction changes. We fought against many gusty breezes across Ensign Lake until we made it to the first portage back. It wasn't even a portage, really. It was a "throwover" a few yards wide with a small stream connecting Ensign Lake and the lake between us and Newfound Lake. Instead of unloading and loading, we did the same as we did coming in, got out of the canoe and pushed it through the small channel. It was just deep enough and wide enough to allow a fully loaded canoe, sans paddlers, to be slid right through and into the water of the next lake. I don't even remember if the lake had a name.
It did have ice on it when we came through a few days before. Thin sheet ice that just barely clung to the surface of the water. You barely even knew it was there...except when we crunched right through a good section of it, crashing through with the bow of the canoe and the blades of our paddles...it was kind of fun...in a dangerous way. That ice had blown away by the winds, and the wind was again at our faces as we started out across the small body of water. The only ice on these lakes now was that which had built up on the roots of trees and broken down trunks and rocks along the rocky shore.
There aren't many places to put in in an emergency in these lakes. Their shorelines mostly consist of bouldery, sometimes high sheer rock face with dense vegetation all around. Their bottoms can be smoother and sandy, but more often than not, even the deepest lakes have huge boulders that sometimes lie just under the surface of the water, ready to overturn a canoe that strays too close to it. And the shallows (if there are any) drop rapidly to deep dark valleys. In a word, treacherous. Potentially.
Reaching the final portage, we caught a whiff of a campfire at its mouth. A smaller group than ours with motor canoes (with the motors left at the portage from Newfound Lake) had gotten driven off Ensign by the same winds we got bogged down in. They were on a different section of the lake, so we never knew they were there, and had to lash their canoes together just to weather the winds and make it to portage. Paul and I saw them again back at the landing, as they motored up just a few minutes behind us.
Struggle again. Though this time was far more workable than the previous day. We still had winds, but they were easier to navigate. Still a little intimidating...especially when we headed out into deeper brisker waters on our way to the portage. I didn't want to. I wanted to remain closer to the shore of the lake where the water was, if not a little calmer, easier to get out of if we did indeed capsize. Paul steered us across the lake, keeping me up on direction changes. We fought against many gusty breezes across Ensign Lake until we made it to the first portage back. It wasn't even a portage, really. It was a "throwover" a few yards wide with a small stream connecting Ensign Lake and the lake between us and Newfound Lake. Instead of unloading and loading, we did the same as we did coming in, got out of the canoe and pushed it through the small channel. It was just deep enough and wide enough to allow a fully loaded canoe, sans paddlers, to be slid right through and into the water of the next lake. I don't even remember if the lake had a name.
It did have ice on it when we came through a few days before. Thin sheet ice that just barely clung to the surface of the water. You barely even knew it was there...except when we crunched right through a good section of it, crashing through with the bow of the canoe and the blades of our paddles...it was kind of fun...in a dangerous way. That ice had blown away by the winds, and the wind was again at our faces as we started out across the small body of water. The only ice on these lakes now was that which had built up on the roots of trees and broken down trunks and rocks along the rocky shore.
There aren't many places to put in in an emergency in these lakes. Their shorelines mostly consist of bouldery, sometimes high sheer rock face with dense vegetation all around. Their bottoms can be smoother and sandy, but more often than not, even the deepest lakes have huge boulders that sometimes lie just under the surface of the water, ready to overturn a canoe that strays too close to it. And the shallows (if there are any) drop rapidly to deep dark valleys. In a word, treacherous. Potentially.
Reaching the final portage, we caught a whiff of a campfire at its mouth. A smaller group than ours with motor canoes (with the motors left at the portage from Newfound Lake) had gotten driven off Ensign by the same winds we got bogged down in. They were on a different section of the lake, so we never knew they were there, and had to lash their canoes together just to weather the winds and make it to portage. Paul and I saw them again back at the landing, as they motored up just a few minutes behind us.
posted by in.dog.neato at 5:18 PM
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