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| The Way Through |
Day 4 was rough. As soon as we had our grits and fried apples down, we got the canoes loaded. Though our breakfast weather had been lovely, things were definitely getting grey. The rain started just as we put on, but there was no wind. This rain was in for the day.
From Fraser Lake, we had to get into Thomas Lake. On our map, this was marked as two bodies of land touching, with maybe a blue line separating the two but definitely no marked portage. (Also, broad blue lines on our map had already been impassible.) We got to the end of the lake in the rain, and lo and behold, there was a nice little creek going through. The land went up pretty steeply from the sides, so thank goodness there was a way through!
Thomas was the main lake of the day, and though it was big, we once again lucked out and didn't have headwinds. (Mind you, cold rain might not be ideal, but it was easier paddling than going into a headwind.) I was up front in the canoe again, and everybody was keeping their head down and paddling hard to stay warm. Ali was navigating for us, and sadly, her rain jacket was obstructing her view. We had to weave past a bunch of large islands and peninsulas looking for just the right bay to get out of the lake.
Naturally, we missed it. The detour was at least on the right side of the lake, and there was a funny-shaped island that we used to orient ourselves after the fact. So, sodden and testy, we backtracked until we found the really small opening we were looking for.
I'm sure Thomas is a pretty cool lake to be on sans rain, but we were all pretty happy to hit the portage to Kiana Lake. Though the rain had tapered off, the wind was starting to pick back up. 3/4 of us were shivering like mad by the time we started the hike, and I was moderately hypothermic.
We had a brief intermediate lake at Kiana, and then another long (164 rod) hike over to Lake Insula. At the beginning of Kiana, we were ready to crash at the first campsite Insula offered. The shelter of Lake Kiana and the length of the 164-rod hike helped us out a ton, though. Before putting on at Insula (a lake chock-full of twisty inlets and islands), we had some pre-cooked Mac and Cheese. It was cold and a little gritty (my fault), but it also provided some much-needed calories.
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| Pulling out of Thomas Lake |
From the first bay of Insula on, we had a couple campsites in mind. However, also from the first bay of Insula on, we started running into more and more traffic. Most of the campsites we had been planning on were taken. Even though the rain had pretty much stopped, the wind kept us chilled, and we needed a place to stop. There was one horrible looking available campsite, but we decided that paddling a little more couldn't hurt us too much.
After going through a full opening (as per the map) - aka, a stony, muddy portage - we made it to a spectacular looking beach. Granted, it was sandy, but it was home. We performed the typical set up (though Ali and I hung a tarp instead of looking for the bear tree), and everybody had another warming nap before dinner.
When we woke up, the weather was holding, perhaps even clearing, but Ali's brand new sleeping mat was not doing so well. We found the hole and patched it, and we also unfolded my space blanket just in case. Dinner was pouch indian food with rice (delicious, and amazingly oily after our long, tough, rainy day). We even finished it off with some mocha mousse. The sunset was absolutely gorgeous, and we were perfectly situated for the view. I'd go so far as to say that the sunset made up for the day of paddling that was done completely in the rain.
That evening, when we went to hang the bear bag, one of our two branches snapped. I managed to avoid being beaned by the tree and our food, but there certainly was a lot of bark that ended up hitting my eyes. We re-hung the line (second try!), watched the night a little longer, and slept soundly.
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| Ducks we scared off from our campsite |
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