Woodland Challenge crosses Temagami (Part V)

Day 8: August 12

Today and tomorrow are ones to go down in the history books for Woodland Challenge. They truly made the trip what it was and sum up the essence of challenge.

The day began with a leisurely paddle through the remaining section of Dougherty Lake, a truly magnificent place to which I must return. The upcoming portage began on an old logging road and promptly turned into a steep uphill climb on a path riddled with trees, most of which we cleaned up on our way back. The paddle through Button Lake was uneventful although I recall Anelynda making some ridiculous claim about something and us agreeing to Google it when we got back. The exit from Button into Adelaide involved a miniature portage/liftover onto a nice flow coming over a beaver dam. I may or may not have helped the flow out a bit to make it easier to push the canoes up. We pushed into Adelaide avoiding a portage and felt good as the sun shone down.

Adelaide was really small and we quickly reached the end and stopped for a snack while I scouted the portage trail (along with every deer fly in the forest). It turned out to be a labyrinth of trails and took me quite a while to find the right path. Explaining to everyone where to go proved more difficult than I thought and Nick and Jordan went the wrong way, albeit not very far. The end entering Sawhorse lake was home to an army of mosquitoes and no one really cared where the stuff went and just chucked it in the boats and pushed off. Once again Addie forgot her shoes... Why they weren't on her feet is still a mystery. Shortly thereafter we got into a standoff with Natalie regarding sunscreen... no one went anywhere until she had put it on. Her tan had seriously not suffered on this trip despite her constant assurances of liberal application.

The short liftover out of sawhorse and into Chiniguchi marked the final leg of the trip which was new for me. I had done the rest of the trip previously and thus felt a bit more confident as far as campsite location and general directions went. We pushed onto McConnell Bay. The water was beautiful and clear as we passed the shallows into the bay. However, upon turning the corner into the bay we saw the three campsites on the beach were occupied... truly devastating. It was already 3pm and we hadn't had lunch and were counting on this site. Anelynda paddled up to make sure they were actually staying the night and not just hanging out for the day as there were a few motor boats pulled up. They were. We chowed down on massive amounts of cheese and jam on our pitas while I contemplated the options. I presented the kids with three options:

1. Go and stay at a campsite that I know is there but is small and crappy
2. Go look for a decent campsite around Lake Chiniguchi which may or may not exist
3. Push on to Wolf Lake, tomorrow's destination, and have a rest day tomorrow

They chose option 3 which meant over 10km more paddling, not to mention an 800 and 200m portage before reaching the site. Off we went at full speed.

The weather was great and we were moving but not very fast by this point. People were drained, the long days were showing (especially in my boat.... Natalie....). We jumped off some rocks along the way to wake us up. Upon passing an island on the southern end of the lake we passed a couple heading north to the Sturgeon. I told them to be prepared for extremely dark water and that it was kind of gross. They seemed worried after that report. The kids laughed.

The 800m into Dewdney went fairly smoothly after a long gorp break yet took a long time. People wanted to camp at the end of the portage trail at a small campsite... Murdoch and I weren't convinced. We pushed on. The paddle across Dewdney was long and the sun was getting lower. However, Anelynda still had her sunglasses on and upon removing her shirt she knocked them off her head and into the water. I was right beside their boat and watched them sink. I would've gone in but she had just finished a sermon on how she only spent two dollars on them. They're at the bottom if anyone is interested. You could see the McConnell tower on the east side of the lake. I had Kim in my boat by this time and it was agreed that we would push ahead at the next portage and would quickly bring all of our stuff over and try to get a site on Wolf while we could still see.

Upon arrival in Wolf I noticed a group camping right across from the portage which is not a campsite. This didn't bode well for campsite availability on the lake. However, the first site on the far side of the lake which is massive turned out to be empty and also appeared (from the fires seen later) to be the only vacant spot on the lake. PHEW!!!

Wolf Lake the next day

It was now getting dark and Murdoch and Anelynda were spearheading the final portage into Wolf at dusk. It seemed to take them a long time as I built a fire and set the wannigan near the cliff for them to spot. We signaled them over and we made dinner in the dark, quickly set up camp and settled in for a well deserved night's rest.

Canoe partner: Kim, Nick, Natalie
Distance Travelled: ~ 20km
Put in time: 9:30
Take out time: ~8:00pm
Dinner: ?
Dessert: ?
Weather: Gorgeous