Day
5; Friday, August 16
Up at our normal time, but we decided to take some fish home, so Brent fished while Peter packed up the camp. Brent caught 3 walleyes. The weather was cool and in retrospect we should have put on more clothes before we took to the water at 09.30, but we thought that we would soon warm up paddling. We carefully checked our route with the GPS to ensure we hit MacDonald Channel, then we continued across Otter Lake (+348 m), another section of the Churchill River system.
The rain started gently, then increased a bit. As we neared Bennet Island
there was a dark line of cloud ahead, and about 500 metres from the headland it
began to rain hard. We beached on the headland at Mackay Bay, and began to
unload our clothes bags. By then the rain was coming down in a monsoon downpour,
although with no wind. We took off our soaking T shirts and, as fast as we
could, we got warmer clothes out of our bags, but they were soaked before we
could get them on. It was like getting dressed while standing in the shower turned full on (all cold
We took off paddling as
hard as we could to generate some heat. Because of this we made good time, in
calm conditions, and in gradually decreasing rain, although it was still spotting by the
time we reached the ramp at Missinipe at 12.30, still soaking wet. We
should have taken out our tarp and changed under the
We walked to Ric’s office to retrieve our car keys, picked up the truck, turned the heater up to 'max', unloaded the canoe, loaded the canoe on top to the truck, bought some frozen vegetables at the Churchill River Trading Post to put on top of the fish in the cooler, and went to the outfitter’s warm restaurant for lunch, where Peter changed into dry clean clothes from the car. Back to Ric to settle the bill for the shuttle, and we were on our way to Emma, for showers, and a dinner of walleye and beer.
But Joyce made Peter shave before he went to bed
Postscript;
August 17, 2002
The next day we sorted out the large quantity of food
remaining (Peter always thought the food bag was unnecessarily heavy), loaded up
the truck and Brent took off for Saskatoon.
Lessons learned:
(a) When maps join edge to edge, it would help if you make copies to stick together and re-photocopy, to give overlaps of the route. Also copy adjacent maps if the route is near the edge of one map;
(b) A GPS is highly recommended;
(c) Use a compass when navigating islands - once you are lost its really hard to figure out where you are. If you only pull out the compass after you are lost it's too late;
(d) Organize the food more carefully. We took way too much (this was Brent's fault - he did the shopping). Plan each meal and only bring a few extra snacks;
(e) Be careful changing into dry clothes in a hard, cold rain (like standing in your shower at home). Keep yourself dry by changing under a tarp.
Peter Long
Emma Lake
August 19, 2002
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