Written from ishpatina: Ontario's highest peak (690m/2264ft)
I kept tossing and turning last night eager for the climb. Finally woke up just before 7 to the sun coming up and hitting my tent on the east side of the island. Fog covered most of the lake; a truly breath taking site. Our island alone in a sea of mist. Getting ready for the climb took FOREVER!! The chaos of the night before was evident while the clothesline showed the soaking wet clothes anxious to dry. I've never seen so many wet clothes and homeless socks. The lake looked spectaular as the sun burned the fog off.
Our island home.
The wind picked up and began to dry things while we had Bible study on the rock. Murdoch stood a few feet off shore and led us. Pretty cool. I caught a garter snake during the study and managed to hold onto it until the end without any of the kids noticing. We finally left our campsite around 11:30 and headed for the trail. It began in an area where a small forest fire had been, probably lit by a poorly planned campfire, crossed a beaver dam and a couple marshes. One of the marshes had walking sticks at one end for everyone to use as we scampered across logs only inches wide and barely above the water. We placed them on the other side and carried on the trail. The kids were exceptionally fast and the trees along the way HUGE. I kept pointing out the massive trees while Anelynda insistently pointed out every mushroom while trying to convince me 'saprobes' was a word for mushroom/fungi. Apparently it was the only thing she remembered from first year biology. Moose tracks were on the path right near the top and so was a sign saying not to climb the tower.... crappy. The view is alright, it's no Silver Peak. Our island sits all alone in the middle of Scarecrow Lake. We need a few voyaguers with some saws to go trim some trees around the edge. The vista is great but b/c we took so long leaving the site clouds rolled back in.... gah! Let us pick blueberries and swat blackflies like it's still May.
On top of Ishpatina!We gathered a ton of firewood before paddling back to our island.
Canoe partner: Matthew Skinner
Distance Travelled: 2km of paddling
Put in time: -
Take out time: -
Dinner: Chicken pot why/Chicken pot cry/Chicken pot holy crap that's a lot of salt
Dessert: Tiger balls
Weather: started out gorgeous, solid cumulus clouds prevailed for most of the day
Day 5: August 9
Today is the tomorrow I worried about yesterday...
The book describes three options for exiting the Ishpatina region into the Sturgeon River. The first is via a 1.8km portage from Stull Lake which apparently goes through a swamp. Based on current high water level I thought this would be a bad idea as the swamp would be in full effect along with the bug population ruling this option out. The second was via a 3.5km ATV path exiting Hambone Lake. Ouch, pretty long. The third and most desirable was via Stull Creek which was 3km of liftovers and lining, especially in this high water... When purchasing our permits from the ranger's office Murdoch and I inquired regarding Stull Creek. A couple of rangers, obviously experienced, had done it the week before and it had taken them 2.5h and they had fully outfitted boats... uh oh. Not wanting to lose gear or someone to get hurt and because we didn't have painters on our boats we decided to do the insanely long portage down the ATV trail. Not wanting the kids to freak out I covertly rubbed out the 3.5km portage written in pencil off the map and we continued on the bus ride to the Montreal.
Because everyone likes to portage in this kind of weather...
Master pancake cook.There is a slippery rock near the water's edge that has claimed many, some multiple times. Anelynda taught the girls a new song while travelling to the mainland. We finally leave late and proceed through a swift to Woods Lake. While waiting up for a straggler Kim's water bottle fell overboard and sank! I really didn't think it would sink but I guess if a metal water bottle is completely full it's less dense than water. I just looked at it. There was no way I was going in for it. Anelynda willingly volunteered despite it feeling like 10degrees out. At the end of Woods Lake we passed into Little Scarecrow Creek which was beautiful but really shallow and full of nice rounded cobbles. We travelled down ducky style, possibly a little too close as I had to use my paddle as a brake and jam it into the rocks to slow us down. We then passed over an old logging bridge overwhich I managed to scrape an old nail pretty good but everyone else nicely glided over with a little instruction. Then onto Hambone. Here I pretended like I didn't know where we were, and initiated a gorp break, thinking I might be able to somehow justify going down Stull Creek. However after some gorp and scouting we landed and prepared for the beast of a portage.
Five hours later, after being passed by multiple trucks and trailers, we emerged at the mighty, or not so mighty Sturgeon River. It was not what I had expected, a very dark tea stained river, fed by fens in the north, surrounded by huge conifers and ferns. It really had a Jurassic Park feel to it. Anyways, if we hoped to find a campsite we had to get going. The moving water was tiny but a nice change from portaging! We emerged onto Paul Lake and we greeted it with the customary "Johnsonville Brats"to see how good the echo was. The echo turned out to be spectacular! The site and the lake, not so much. The kids quickly spread out and grabbed the first tent sites they could find and as per usual missed a total gem at the back of the site. It was deemed 'The Secret Garden' and was home to the leaders that night. Everyone was pretty disgusting after the portage and the guys and girls took turns paddling out to where it was deep enough to take dips. Murdoch and I went out when it was dark and were both scared, he kept thinking he was going to jump out of the boat and land on a dead head. The water was dark, really dark, and spooky.
Canoe partner: Jordan Lewis?
Distance Travelled: 14km?
Put in time: 10:30
Take out time: 8:00
Dinner: Black bean burritos made by the guys
Dessert: ?
Weather: started out as drizzle and cloud cover, ended clear
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