Day 7: 08-16-08 Saturday

Lakes / Rivers: Kenoji Lake and the Palisade River (upstream)

Distance: 21 km (13.1 miles)

Portages: 4

Swifts paddled: 4

Swifts tracked: 5

Time: 5:48

I'm writing while sitting back in my therm-a-rest chair on the Palisade River on an island campsite at 0330 pm.

This morning I woke up around 0430 am, but fell back to sleep as soon as my alarm went off at 0525 am. I finally got up at 0552 am and out of the tent to start the morning fire. Dick was rummaging through one of the packs. He had just gotten up. Dick in the morning gets out the food that Dave will cook for breakfast. Once I had the fire going I went back up to the tent to pack my sleeping bag, etc.

The temperature last night was probably the warmest it's been since we started the trip. Dave commented on the nice sunrise so I grabbed my camera and tripod to take some photos.

Dave cooked up some eggs and sausage for breakfast.

Pete and I were on the water at 0759 am. Once we were on the water then there was enough room for Dave and Dick to load their canoe.

The following is the information on the portages from our 6th campsite.

The water on the Palisade River in this stretch flows north to south. There was a swift that could be seen from our campsite and we needed to immediately paddle up it. There was supposed to be another swift not too far from the first one. The shore was pinched down, but there wasn't any real strong current so we had no problem.

1st portage: We tracked the canoes on river right (left side). There were three boats cached here.

2nd portage: instead of doing this portage we tracked the canoes up the first swift. The second swift we walked the canoes up the current. The next two swifts we were able to paddle up them.

3rd portage: was on river right that was 93 meters long. This portage was a good trail that had a slight climb from the water, then levels off with a down slope to the water on the back side.

4th portage: My map showed this portage was 90 meters. I stepped it off and got 106 steps. This portage is located in the west bay that doesn’t follow the waterway in the east bay. The put-in had a sandy landing.

5th portage: was on river right. The river / rapids were totally blocked with sweepers. Total length of the portage was 227 meters. There was a campsite at the upstream end of the portage on river right.

6th portage: This portage is on river right. This was marked wrong on my map. Length: 183 meters.

Pete was the first one to see a moose with only his head sticking out of the water. The moose saw us and began swimming toward shore. Pete and I paddled over in its direction to try to get closer for a good photo. I was moving the stern of the canoe around to get a good shot, when the moose got out of the water and ran out of sight before I could grab my camera.

7th portage: Pete and I moved a head of Dave and Dick to look for this portage that was on river right. We paddled up a swift that meandered through some downed cedar trees (sweepers). It looked like a couple tops on some of the sweepers had been cut off leading me to believe that the portage was further upstream.

Pete and I paddled up around a couple cedars then stopped the canoe and got out in the water on river right.

We walked the canoe up the faster water located here after we made sure Dave and Dick made it up the first swift. Then we walked the canoe up the faster water around the bend up to an eddy on river right.

We walked back to help Dave and Dick walking their canoe up this second set of faster water if they needed it. Dick wanted to track the bow of Dave’s canoe while Dave was in the stern I was giving Dick some instructions in this tricky area when he lost his footing. Dick was being swept down the current so I jumped in and grabbed him be his PFD. I was floating in the current until I grabbed a hold of Dave’s canoe. Dick and I regained our footing. Dick walked back toward Dave holding onto the gunwale and got out of the water. Pete and I then took Dave’s canoe up the rapids since we were in a better position to do it.

Dave and Dick jumped back into their canoe at the top of the rapids when it was safe to do so.

There were three curious otters that kept us amused for several minutes about one kilometer from our seventh campsite. Dave started whistling at them when one of them began even more curious and started swimming toward Dave.

We tracked our canoes up a swift to get to the campsite that’s on the west side of this island. We had lunch here at the campsite at 0147 pm.

Once we were done with lunch I re-did the rock fire ring where we could cook with a grill. Dick put up the water filter then gathered what firewood he could find. Pete set up his tarp.

Once we were organized in camp we relaxed. I began writing in my journal while Dave worked on his maps. When Dave was finished with his maps we compared notes on the route that we covered today.

We saw orange flagging at both the beginning and the ends of all the portages today. Pete opened a bag of dried cranberries and put some coffee on the fire. It didn't take long for us to eat the bag of cranberries.

Dave was curious on how much detail I was going to put in my trip report when I posted it on my blog. I wasn’t sure when he asked me. What I’ve done so far is basically copy over my notes that I wrote in my journal.

Dave and Pete went out in the canoe to do some fishing. They were over by the small rapids to the west of this campsite, but now it appears they are moving all around.

Today’s paddle up the lazy Palisade River reminded me a lot of Quetico with the high granite rock outcroppings along the river. These granite outcroppings gave the topography some elevation compared to the lowlands we’ve mostly paddled so far in the boreal forest.

I haven’t commented on this so far, but Dick talks out loud to himself. He’s now looking for his lip balm.

0627 pm: I just saw Dave catch some type of fish. I know that’s two that I’ve seen him catch so far from this distance.

There are so many blueberries. They seem to be everywhere at the campsite and along the portages. Dave mentioned earlier you know you want a blueberry badly when you reach down to grab one while portaging the canoe.

The sky is beginning to get some darker clouds forming out to the west. I’ve been sitting under the tarp escaping the sun while writing. There’s been a nice breeze coming from a westerly wind this afternoon / early evening. It feels especially nice while I’ve been sitting out of the sun.

I took a bath earlier and did that ever feel good.

We still haven’t seen another canoeist since we started our trip. Dave was on the volunteer trail clearing crew with the Wabakimi Project the week prior to our trip. Dave thought the crew that replaced him were to be coming down on the Palisade River, but we haven’t seen any sign of them.

Tomorrow we are taking a day trip to the west into Burntrock Lake. I’m not all sure what we are going to do, but we won’t have to break down camp in the morning. There are two portages and a swift before we get into Burntrock Lake.

Today when we were tracking our canoes up some rapids I was up to my waist. Luckily, my Olympus camera that I have around my neck is waterproof. I was completely wet when I grabbed onto Dick who was floating down the rapids. My camera seems to have survived the dunking.

My ankle had been feeling pretty good the last couple of days, but I could feel some pain when I was attempting to get my footing while floating in the rapids with Dick.

Pete cooked up some tortellini while Dave mixed up some seasoned olive oil for it. Dave cooked up the walleyes that he and Pete caught today. It was a nice dinner.

It really hasn’t been getting too dark at night out due to the Full moon. We were all in our tents by 1000 pm.