Day 9: 08-18-08 Monday

Lakes / Rivers: Palisade River (downstream)

Distance: 21 km (13.1 miles)

Portages: 2

Swifts lined: 2

Time: 4:39


I’m not sure why I woke up at 0324 am. Did I hear a noise or what? What I saw when I opened my eyes was a light shining outside of our tent. Then I heard some noise. It was Dick walking from an area that wasn’t remotely close to his tent.

Pete began moving around 0430 am. He got out of the tent for a while, but he came back inside. My alarm went off at 0525 am and Pete never moved or made any sound.

When I got out of the tent Pete still wasn’t moving. I walked down to get a fire going to begin heating up the water for coffee. Everyone seemed to be taking their time getting up this morning. Dick was up next and he brought the food pack down closer to the fire. Dave began cooking breakfast for us. Today we had egg burritos. Dave uses the Sontegard Brand Dried egg mix.

Pete was the last one up this morning. He also had picked up the metal cans that were on the ground at an old campfire that was near our tent. He had them in a plastic bag that we’ll pack out.

It was a much cooler morning, very cloudy and it looked like it might rain today. We were on the water at 0805 am. We would be back tracking some of the route we took to get to this campsite a couple days ago. We immediately got to the swift that’s next to the campsite. We got out of the canoe and walked it through the rocky area before jumping back in the canoe.

We had a NE wind in our face as we paddled. We paddled approximately 3 km to the swift where Dick went swimming the other day. We lined this swift because of the two sharp bends and there was a very good possibility that we would have been wedged up against a sweeper or worse. Once Pete and I got his canoe through I went back and took the line from Dick to get Dave’s canoe down the swift.

The next portage was 183 meters long. Approximately 1 km east of the last portage we stopped at an island campsite that hadn’t been used in a long time. This was a 2 x 2 campsite.

Continuing on for another 2 km we stopped at another campsite that’s SW of Webster Creek. This was a 2 x 2 site. There hadn’t been any use this year. Dave mentioned if we went north through Webster Creek that this would be one way to get to the Albany River, but he said he heard the portages were nasty.

After checking this site we paddled 1 km to the next portage (223 meters). There was a campsite at the beginning of the portage. This was also a 2 x2. There was another 7 km of paddling before the next 90 meter portage.

Dave asked if we wanted to go up another branch of the Palisade River or down through Slim Lake. Dave knew where there was one campsite on an island on the Palisade, but he didn’t have any confirmed info on Slim Lake. The Palisade branch would take us west of where we would eventually be heading back toward Slim, but we all said we wanted to check out the other branch of the Palisade. Dave warned us he didn’t know how good the site was on the island on the Palisade River.

We all began looking along shore for any other possible campsites as we paddled to the known site. We stopped for lunch at 1220 pm on the western side of a large island that had a nice sand beach. We checked around this area to see if we could possibly make a campsite here with enough room for two tents. It would be possible, but we would have to do some clearing of a significant amount of down trees to accomplish it. This area has some nice large Jack Pines. There was an old fire ring in the sand that had been destroyed by the ice. I’m sure this was only used for a shore lunch site. We left the sand beach at 1244 pm.

The known camp site was about 1 km away. Dave was aware of some people camping at it before, but he had no idea how big or good a site it was.

When we paddled up toward the island with the campsite it sure didn’t look promising. The island was very sparse of trees with no down fire wood. We got out of the canoes and decided that the site wouldn’t work for us. We made a notation that this site would only be good as an emergency site.

Dave and I scanned the surrounding area for other possibilities for a site. I saw an area that looked promising so we paddled over to it. This immediate area was not suitable, but near this point was an area that would work.

We walked over to this area and there was a fireplace that hadn’t been used in years. The fireplace would need some work, but the site would work. Best of all there was room for two tents. We arrived at this site at 0108 pm. We walked back to our canoes and paddled over to an area closer to the fire ring. We all began doing chores to get the site ready for us.

I re-did the fireplace to our liking.

This area of the Palisade River is really pretty with its high ridges and rock outcroppings.

Pete and Dick went out fishing in the canoe. Dave was setting up his rod and decided to fish from shore. I offered to paddle Dave around while he fished, but I was told that both people in the canoe needed to have a fishing license to be legal in Canada. I didn’t buy a fishing license, since I knew I would be taking photos and writing in my journal. The only time I go fishing anymore is when I go to Florida.

The gray skies of earlier had cleared out and now there was nothing but blue skies. Today there has been some coolness in the air that we haven’t felt on this trip.

When Pete and Dick came back from fishing, Pete didn’t pull his canoe up on shore very well. Dave asked Pete how he liked his canoe as it was floating down the river. Dave and Dick paddled Pete over to his canoe so he could paddle it back to camp.

Dave is fishing somewhere from shore while Pete is cooking dinner. Pete is cooking angle hair pasta with chicken and a sauce.

Dick was cleaning his two fish that he caught earlier. Pete cooked up Dick’s fish for us to eat after dinner. Dick left a lot of the bones in the fish.

We were all in our tents by 1000 pm.