FEET!!: Eddy to Fraser

View Day 3 - Perhaps my Favorite in a larger map

A Kekekabic Pond

Day 3 was probably my favorite day of paddling. We had an awesome mix of big and small lakes; the portages were a great mix of short and medium length; I switched up to the front of the canoe and had the whole unobstructed view/lack of navigational concern thing going; and even though a fair amount of the day was overcast, we were out of the burned area, so it was still quite scenic.

One of the Ponds

We got up reasonably early, in an attempt to dodge the winds on Kekekabic Lake. We got some oatmeal/fruit, packed up, and were on the water by 9. (I think this might have been the earliest on-water day of the trip.) We back-tracked a little bit on Eddy, and scouted out a portage to the Kekekabic Ponds. (After the Ensign Lake problems, we scouted a couple of portages, including the 193 rod trek over to Knife Lake.) The lake looked right, and we had 4 straightforward mini-lakes and 5 portages all under 21 rods to get us over to Kekekabic Lake proper.

The tiny lakes and tiny portages were just cool. There were tiny one-tree island/rocks and incredibly easy to find portages. (The lakes weren't really big enough to have more than two trails going to them.) Even though we had a lot of getting in and out of the boats, we did so quickly. The wind was gaining a little strength as we got on to Kekekabic, but it was still gusty, and we still had some shelter from the surrounding land.

We started on this narrow(ish) tail of the lake, going past a bunch of nice rocky outcroppings and headed up to this neat-looking constriction. The far side of the lake was more open and tree-covered, but the shifting light/clouds made some eye-catching patterns.

The "Narrow" bit of Kekekabic

Up toward the constriction, we got a much pushier headwind. Ali and I paddled hard to get through the opening, and we managed to dodge the bulk of the rain that was blowing in. The other canoe was not so lucky, but by day 3, we were all pretty used to showers popping up. Around the bend, we had less wind, more (really interesting) rocky islands, cooler body temps, and another 2/3 of the lake to paddle. I grabbed a few handfuls of trail mix, and we kept paddling.

The opposite side

The portage out of Kekekabic Lake was a little tricky to find, but we managed pretty well by hugging the shoreline. Our buddies seemed a little bit tired, and we grabbed some tuna/cheese/crackers as soon as we got across the 72 rod portage into Strup Lake. I found my first leech of the trip under a chaco strap (gross) and had it off quickly enough. We had 4 small lakes to get over to Fraser Lake for the evening: Strup, Wisini, Ahmakose, and Gerund. One of the portages was nearing 100 rods, but most were in the teens and twenties.

Unfortunately, we realized we had lost our friends by the first portage we got to after lunch (an 11-rod). The lake hadn't been that big, but even after I carried the canoe across, they were nowhere to be seen. We started yelling, and after a minute or two, they came through the neck of the lake. It turns out there had been a little too much dehydrated fruit and too little fruit with the morning paddle.

We did a couple more hops and skips, and Ali and I did our best to help carry as much of the gear and canoes as possible while our friends were recovering. A couple of chalky tablets helped out, and we were back on a bigger lake for the home stretch in no time.

Orienting ourselves off a Campsite on K-Lake

We had a nice slab of a rock leading up to our campsite, with enough cover from the wind. Soft dirt for our tents, a huge (and nearby) tree for our food, and some split and dried logs waiting for us made it even better. It had been a pretty chilly day; post-set up, everybody crawled into the tents for a pre-dinner nap. We had some awesome couscous curry and hot drinks (including hot jello drink) for dessert. There were some crazy chipmunks that got into anything left unattended and accessible, but there were also some cute toads later in the evening. There were also field mice once it got dark, but they kept their distance.