Day
1; Monday, August 12
We were up at 5.00 and on the road by 6.05 headed north
on Highway 2. Throughout
the trip we both got up early, usually about 5:30. There were a couple of reasons for this:
(a) This
On the way north we gave a lift to two mill workers from the La Ronge reserve whose car had broken down on the way from Prince Albert. They had been on short time because of the United States restriction on softwood imports.
Two hours later, we gassed up, as usual at the Mohawk Station in La Ronge, and continued north on Highway 102 for another 80 km. to arrive at Churchill River Canoe Outfitters in Missinipe at 09.20 to be greeted by Ric Driediger and Cindy. Cindy is studying Adventure Tourism, and was working for Ric during the summer. She would shuttle our truck back to Missinipe. Half an hour later we were at a launch site on McLennan Lake (GR 474 933, elevation +413 m), a bit short of the official start point but very close to the road. We unloaded the truck which, with Cindy, disappeared back south towards Missinipe, where we expected to emerge on Friday.
We loaded the canoe in warm sunshine in a blue sky, applied sunblock in anticipation of a steady day’s paddling, and were on the water by 10.20.
Initially the water was calm, but as we progressed southwest on Lake McLennan a strong northwest wind blew up slapping white caps against the side of the canoe.
Peter
suggested we paddle near shore
About 6 km. later, after checking our location with GPS (a fine idea!), we arrived at Portage No. 1 (184 m long) at 11.30, and stopped for lunch. The temperature was 16°C (61°F). Most of the portages are described in the Canoe Guide as starting at a ‘conspicuous clearing’ or ‘obvious break in the shoreline vegetation’ but most were not so obvious to us. Initially, most were marked with colored tape, but not later ones. Ric afterwards suggested that in some of those cases portages no longer existed in spite of their description in the Guide and that canoeists walked their canoes down the streams.
On Minuhik Lake we turned east. The wind was still blowing from a generally northerly direction so we decided to take the shorter route to Versailles Lake but which involved two portages (3A and 3B) instead of the single one (3) which would have involved a north-easterly paddle on Versailles Lake. Portage 3A, like most of the portages on the trip had sections of ankle deep muskeg so our feet as well as being wet from the landing were dirty too. Some portages were running with water after recent rains with slippery clay on steep parts.
We found
Portage 3B easily by close map reading, but as we approached we saw a
We completed 3B at15.00 and began to cross Versailles Lake in a strong wind and waves from the northwest. We began to look for a campsite on one of the islands (much less hassle with bears likely on an island) and found a nice one on the east side of Versailles at GR401843. By 16.20 we had set up the tent, got the fire going and in a temperature of 22°C (72°F) we broke open the rye whisky.
Brent stole ice from the cooler for his rye.
.
Peter took his rye warm.
In fact, that was a bit early to break out the rye, because
it considerably slowed the preparation of dinner, which was BBQ chicken and stir
fried vegetables. The
real problem wasn't the hour we started drinking but
And so to bed.
At
about 9:30 we heard a noises on the water and