Day 2; Sunday 25 July
We woke at 6 am, breakfasted on pancakes with syrup and coffee
We were loaded and paddling by 9 am. I did not feel as stiff as I expected.
For 37 kilometres below this rapid the river meanders to the south and southeast through a wide sandy valley with no major obstructions to navigation.
It certainly meandered. We saw some pictographs, and later a bald eagle which was relucutant to leave its tree.
Brent unkindly pounded on the side of his aluminum canoe; the rifle shot noise got the eagle’s attention and it flew away.We saw another eagle in its nest on the cliff, near the end of the meanders.
The weather was hot and sticky but a soaking wet hat cools one nicely.
For the last 2 hours we paddled into strong headwinds.
High granite cliffs and a sudden change of direction of the channel mark the approach to two short Class 2 rapids which should be examined prior to running. No portage trails were found past these two rapids.
We ran the two R2s, and set up camp, including rigging the tarp, at the bottom of the rapid at 4pm. Nice spot except for some scum on the water. There was a wildlife (moose?) trail straight through the campsite but nothing came through during the night.
Novice Lesson No. 2 Canoeing seems to be hours of boredom interspersed with a few seconds of panic. I was surprised how close you can come to the top of rapids and land safely at the portage. I was half expecting us to be swept over, but the water is not that fast even very close to the start.
Alan paddled and bathed while Warren, Rick, Mike, Brent and I tried our hand at fishing. Warren caught a big Jack (Northern Pike) but Brent said "We don’t want that”. (I did not hear of this until later!). I caught a baby jack, but this was tossed back on Warren’s orders. No other fish bit so we cooked burritos with lashings of butter and drank Crown Royal (much lighter to portage). I appreciated the thorough planning for the nourishment aspect of the trip.
On day 2 we had paddled 37 km.