Day 2: 08-11-08 Monday

Lakes / Rivers: Flindt River, Flet Lake, Flindt Lake and the Flindt River

Distance: 25.5 km (15.9 miles)

Portages: 4

Swifts paddled: 3

Rapids lined: 1

Time: 7:26 (not including 30 minute lunch)


It cooled off last night. I’m not sure what the temperature got down to, but it was nice sleeping weather. My alarm went off at 0500 am. It was still very dark outside. Pete got up at 0540 am and after he was done dressing I got up out of the tent.

It looked like it was going to be another nice day. Dick and Dave were out of their tent by 0600 am. There was some fog over the water this morning.

Dave was the cook for breakfast. Breakfast consisted of fresh eggs, hash browns, bacon and coffee. Dave cooked up the walleye that we’ll have with some pita bread for lunch today.

We packed up the campsite and we were on the water at 9 am. Dave wanted to check on a campsite that was just around the corner from where we were camped. This campsite was on river right and it had one tent pad (1x2). This means one place for a two person tent site.

This following information is for the first portage after our campsite. There was a “swift” that we took some time to study before running. We took the eddy on river left before the next rapids. There was previous info that the portage was on river right past the “swift”. We tried scanning the other shore, but there wasn’t any portage that was obvious. Dave and Dick decided to ferry to the other side, across the fast moving current. Dave got out of his canoe and walked into the woods looking for the portage. He was gone for some time. When he showed back up, he said he didn’t find the portage.

I got out of Pete’s canoe on river left and went into the woods. I found an animal trail that came out just downstream from where I went in. I hopped across the rocks going downstream next to the rapids. When I got to the end of the rapids I looked back across the river. I saw what looked like a blaze on a tree marking the downstream side of the portage. I went back to the canoe where Pete was waiting and yelled to Dave my findings.

Pete and I now had to cross the strong current to the other side. I told Pete what I wanted him to do stroke wise and what the fast current was going to do with the canoe. Dave and Dick began to line their canoe down the fast moving rapids by the time Pete and I crossed the current to river right. Pete and I then lined his canoe down the same rapids.

Just before we got to the portage landing Dick who was walking in the water fell in a hole up to his neck. I got out and confirmed that the blaze was at the portage. I walked the trail for some distance and it angled off from shore. The way the portage trail was going I believe we missed the upstream landing before the first swift. This was the reason Dave couldn’t find it when he walked about 75 meters into the woods. There were two more swifts after we lined our canoes past the rapids.

The second portage we found and walked. It wasn’t too bad, but needed some trail work. It was 250 meters long.

The third portage is on a north/south line that was 225 meters long on river left.

The forth portage is on river right and begins on the opposite side of the rapids. Its 175 meters long and it has a small opening with a blaze. There was a boat that is cached at the lower end of the portage. We had to run two swifts after this portage, and then we were on Flet Lake.

We paddled on toward Flindt Lake. We saw a couple campsites on the south end of Flindt Lake, but we didn’t go over to check them out.

We stopped about 3 km before our last portage of the day for lunch at 1245 pm. This was on the north end of a long peninsula on Flindt River. We had the walleye with the Pita bread, sun dried fruit and some gorp. Once again, we had the same problem with the pita bread being stuck together. We were back on the water less than a half hour later.

It was a hot day with little to no wind. The water surface was almost like glass. It was very hot wearing my PFD.

The last portage of the day was on river left. The upper end of the portage was very muddy and rocky and the lower end was muddy as well.

After lunch Dave headed off on an azimuth more toward the east. I thought we should be going to the Northeast, but I didn’t say anything. Only when we headed directly north and were about to run out of water did I mention to him that he went to the east instead of the NE. I told myself if I came across a similar situation I would speak up.

I brought us back to the area where we went off course and continued to lead from there. When I mentioned to Dave about our error he appeared to be exhausted probably due to the sweltering heat. I mentioned to Pete that Dave appeared very tired and agreed that he was.

We found a spot to camp in a burn area at 0506 pm. We needed to get the tarp up for some shade and to get the gravity water filter going for water. We all needed to hydrate ourselves after paddling in the hot sun. These were the first two priorities at each campsite. There might have been another campsite on the shore across from us, but we never went to check it out.

Dinner was chicken, beans and mash potatoes. We are very close to the waters edge. Dave and Pete did most of the talking while Dick listened. I sat, listened and wrote in my journal.