Mosquito and Devil

Since this was somewhat of a novice trip, we first paddled over to the bottom of Mosquito Falls to practice in some fast water and haystacks. Warren and Brent were experienced white-water stern paddlers. Jason was an experienced bow-man, but this was his first trip in the stern; Peter had been in the bow with both Warren and Brent many times, but was rusty, having just arrived from Virginia, while it was the first canoe experience for Russ and Craig.

We practiced a draw, cross draw, eddying in and out, and ferrying, for half an hour and then relaxed for lunch.

We were all dehydrated and pumped gallons of river water through the PUR filter.

After lunch we paddled to the foot of Little Devil Rapids, beginning with a 150 m portage around a Class 1 rapid. Then for practice we ran the rapid, and ran it again for fun, and some hardy souls ran it a third time, including Craig who took a turn in the stern with Warren in the bow. This was followed by walking and lining the canoes up the next two sections of Little Devil

A brief 1 km paddle was followed by the 1 km portage around Great Devil Rapids including Wladkya Falls. This is a tough portage. (A couple of years ago, Ken, Warren's brother in law, from California, said that he could not see why anyone would do this for fun!). We did it in pairs just in case the bear was around. The mosquitoes were active on the portage too, and it was hot and humid. We were soaked. This was followed by another one km paddle to our campsite at the head of Donaldson.

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