Lakes / Rivers: Grayson River and Whitewater Lake
Distance: 10 km (6.25 Miles)
Portages: 3
Pullovers: 2
Time: 3:05
Last night I had to put my shoes under the downside edge of my sleeping pad to keep from rolling off it. Pete needed to do the same. Some of these tent areas are less than ideal.
The alarm went off at 0525 am. Pete began stirring shortly thereafter. After he was out of the tent, I packed up my stuff. I saw Dick walk by our tent while I was packing.
Pete had the fire going and the coffee pot on the fire already. When I came down to the fire he went back up and started packing up the tent. I needed to put more wood on the fire to get the water to boil.Dave got up and made the Sturdiwheat hot cereal with mangos that hit the spot. I put some cinnamon on the cereal this time. I think I'll have to try some mangos in my oatmeal when I get home.
Dave told me to pick up some Red River Cereal while in Canada. He said it had the flaxseed in it. I never did stop to pick up some when we were out of the bush, but Pete asked me if I wanted to stop while we were in Thunder Bay.
Once everything was packed up we were on the water by 0734 am. This was the earliest we’ve started on the water. When Pete and I shoved off that gave Dave and Dick enough room to get their canoe in the water.
Last night it stayed warm out and this morning it still was very warm. It felt humid. The mosquitoes were still out. This site has been the worst for mosquitoes that we’ve been at, but overall they haven’t been too bad. So far the trip has been very enjoyable without a constant swarm of mosquitoes.
Instead of doing the first portage to our east we paddled as far as we could before lifting the canoes over the fast moving shallow water. Then we paddled a short distance to the next campsite that was on river right next to the rapids. We portaged 60 meters across the campsite to the other side and continued on our way. We didn’t use the regular portage here, either.Less than 2 km away was another portage that was 158 meters based on what I stepped off. This portage was located in a bay on river right. There was an old blaze, but very hard to see, just to the left of the trail. Once we got closer I could see another newer blaze from the water, but it was located further back.
There were some moose tracks in the mud along the trail. I stopped and took a photo of one of the tracks. This port was very muddy and rocky. There was also a 10 inch diameter Jack Pine about 2 feet up off the trail.
Pete and I checked for a possible campsite on the north end between the two portages, but we didn’t locate anything.
Before the next portage was a campsite on river right. This site hadn’t been used in a long time.
I walked off the next portage off at 170 meters. There were two boats cached at the beginning of the portage. One of the boats had a 1990 Minnesota boat registration, ID # MN 4826 CK. This portage was muddy.
After this portage we checked out a campsite on the first big island. This site had only been used for shore a lunch. There was a Styrofoam cup, foil and some onion remains left in the fire pit.
We paddled SE along the eastern shore of this big island. Where the island appears to touch the main land there is a small opening where we were able to get through, but to do so we needed to drag the canoes across a shallow area
The wind was blowing from a southerly direction on Whitewater Lake. We needed to cross a ¾ km of open water in the larger waves. If we had not continued paddling yesterday we would have gotten to this area and there was a good possibility we might not have been able to cross. The wind has increased since we arrived at our current campsite at 1039 am.
Camp was set up. Then it was lunch time of pita, cheese and gorp. There were some dark clouds moving in so we tighten up the camp by bringing up the portage packs and placing them under the tarp.
Pete and Dave are doing some laundry.The strong winds with some really strong gust are blowing up some good size waves on the lake now. We wouldn’t be able to cross that ¾ km section now.
Tomorrow we will meander our way through the islands on Whitewater Lake to get to Best Island. This will be our last evening and we will get picked up on the Otter on Saturday near Best Island.
We’ll begin by going through the maze of islands along the north part of the lake then turn to the south where we have two options to go depending on the strength of the wind.
Well, the last couple days Pete and I have been talking about stopping at Tim Horton’s for a blueberry muffin and coffee when we get out. Actually I’ll probably get something other than a blueberry muffin, since I’ve eaten so many blueberries on this trip.
Today is day 12 of our trip. I think I’m going to stop writing for a while and do something else or I might just sit back on my therm-a-rest chair and take in the views. The time is now 0123 pm. It’s approximately 14.5 km to Wendell Bechwith’s place on Best Island. I’m not exactly sure where our next campsite will be located.
I’m back. Everyone has had a bath. We all have been sitting around under the tarp trying to get relief from the hot sun. The wind has been blowing extremely hard still. Dave told Pete there were probably 4 foot seas on Whitewater Lake right now.
We’ve seen three small motorboats come past our campsite in the narrows. They don’t even want to be in the open part of the lake.
04:43 pm: The wind seems to want to ease up some, but then some very large gust of wind will pop up.
Dave and Pete went out in the canoe in an attempt to catch some fish for dinner. They went to the west in these narrows. Pete had caught a couple small northern pike while fishing from shore earlier.
The dark ominous clouds have since moved out, but I’m still sitting here watching the large waves crashing up on the islands in the distance.
I forgot to mention earlier we could see and smell some smoke due to some larger fire when we got near Whitewater Lake. The fire was somewhere to our south. We heard the helicopter again today while paddling, but we never saw it.
Dave used this same campsite last year and from the looks of things it hasn’t been used since then.
Dick didn’t carry any packs again today.
0504pm: I just some more coffee on the fire.
Dave and Pete came back from fishing with some walleyes. Dave filleted them, and then he mixed up the fish in a soup / chowder type mix. We called it “Wabakimi Chowder”.
Pete has been very animated and talkative this evening after having some bumps off his liquor he brought on the trip.
Dick went to bed early. Dave, Pete and I talked about group dynamics and minimizing risk on canoe trips. The first step is the screening process. The further north one goes on a trip it’s important not to take inexperienced people.
When we were talking about inexperienced people I thought to myself that most of the recreational paddlers I know are “dippers”. These are canoe trips and the method of movement is done with a paddle and personally I feel strongly a person should be a competent paddler. In Minneapolis there have been a group of racers that put on a weekly paddling session called, Monday Night rookie Racers". This has been going every year since 1976. We pair an experienced recer with an inexperienced paddler to show them how to paddle properly and efficiently.
Usually the first time a person comes to the practice they always say they know how to paddle, but it's evident as soon as they get on the water that they need to stop paddling the way have been all their life and start to learn the proper way. It seems easy to paddle correctly, but once a person tries it they quickly learn it isn't that easy. Once they learn the correct technique, then they enjoy paddling that much more.
0130 am (Friday morning): I got out of the tent to check on the weather. It was nice and warm out. I stayed outside for a while enjoying the sights and sounds. It was still very light outside as it had been this whole trip.
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