With our bellies fattened, we all rested well in preparation for our final day on the river. We put the canoes in the water early and loaded them with our gear. We managed a few walleye as we departed the pool below the 3rd waterfall. Our string of walleye dinners would not be broken.
There was one final set of rapids we needed to negotiate before we made our way down to the Missinaibi. Bruce and I were in the Mad River canoe. It's a great craft, but has one flaw. The seats are right up at the level of the top of the canoe. So, at times, the center of gravity is a little high.
Bruce and I were headed into the rapids and staying in the main flow. A large boulder lay ahead of us to the right and then quickly another boulder to the left. We knew we would need to make a hard turn to the left and then again to the right. As we approached the 1st boulder to the right we both paddled hard on the starboard side, but the swift flow pushed us directly into the boulder.
BAM! SPLASH! As we hit the rock, me and Bruce flew right off the port side and into the rapids. Neither Bruce or I rattle easily. We just grabbed the canoe to keep it from filling full with water, put our feet in front of us, and rode the rapids out along side the canoe. We laughed hysterically the entire way down. We hooped and hollered as we brought the canoe ashore to unload the gear and dump the water out. We agreed that might have been the most exciting event on our trip. If not for time, I think we would have done it again.
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| Goodbye Fire River |
With the canoe reloaded, we paddled on down to the Missinaibi. She's a much bigger river, but the stretch we were on was all slow and steady. A front was moving in, so the only difficulty was constantly fighting the wind from pushing us into the bank. We made good time getting down stream about 2 miles to the Brunswick portage.
The Brunswick portage over to Brunswick Lake is a mile long. The path is in pretty good shape, but it does travel up and then back down a significant hill (or small mountain when you are carrying 2 of Mike's packs). We had hoped to be able to portage the canoes and all of the gear in 2 trips between the 3 of us.
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| Up... |
Mike and Bruce wanted to carry the canoes. If you have never carried a kevlar canoe, put one on your shoulders some time. You'll want to shell out some bucks for one after that. The canoes we were using only weigh about 40lbs. With the yoke placed properly, the canoes are well balanced on your shoulders and really easy to portage.
Bruce also picked up one of the large packs and carried it on his back. I loaded down with 3 packs, the fishing gear and our walleye and we started on the 1st trip. Mike was quickly gone ahead of us. About a quarter mile into the portage, Bruce decided it was too difficult to carry the canoe and a pack and be able to step over fallen trees uphill. He lay the pack down for us to pick up later.
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| ...and back down |
The canoes were portaged safely to the other side. I was relatively certain my arms were going to fall off due to the heavy backpack pressure on my shoulders at the end of the 1st portage. But, my role was to be Bill the pack pony...so I headed back for the next load.
When we made it back to the remaining gear, Mike had already been there and passed us on the trail again. Bruce and I loaded ourselves down with the remaining gear and headed back towards the lake. As we approached the bag Bruce had dropped previously we decided we needed to try to bring it along so we didn't have to take yet one more 2 mile hike. I carried the big pack for about a quarter of a mile further and had all I could take. Bruce picked the pack up from there and carried it another quarter mile. At that point Bruce had enough as well. Mike was coming back up the trail at that moment. We helped Mike put the pack on his back and we finished the portage. Team work is a beautiful thing!
Oh, you thought the hard part was over? Now, the Brunswick portage does take you to Brunswick Lake...sort of. The southern part of Brunswick Lake is really a peat bog. Have you ever tried to walk in a peat bog? If you are lucky, you will find a path to water that the canoe can actually float that is heavily covered in aquatic vegetation. If you find that, you can walk on top of the peat, which is even more spongey and bouncy to walk on than tundra. If you don't find some dense vegetation to walk on, you sink to your knees in thick soaked peat with every step. It's not bad dragging the canoe that way, but carrying the gear through it is a little more...fun.
Once we got the canoes in reasonable water and the gear loaded we had to slog our way up to the actual lake. The bog was shallow and filled with water lilies and lotus. I suspect this area was quite beautiful when it was in full bloom a month earlier. But on this day it was gloomy, we were covered in peat, and we were trying to out-run a storm so that we could be off the lake before things got choppy. We found ourselves poling through the bog rather than paddling. This seemed much more efficient.
Open water! We made it to the open water. With rain spitting on us and the winds picking up, we began to paddle hard along the east coastline of the lake. We had another 2 miles of lake ahead of us to get to our pick-up spot. We did have to fight the wind some, but thankfully the lake did not get too angry as we made our way north to the beach.
As we arrived at the beach we were let-down with the realization that our adventure was all but over. We made camp and enjoyed our final meal of walleye. Tomorrow morning, the float plan would fly us back to reality.
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| Finally out of the bog |
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| The beach |
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| They mated...and then she ate his head. |
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| Fresh moose tracks on the beach |
