Woodland Challenge crosses Temagami (Part VI)

Day 9: August 13 - A day not soon to be forgotten

Ah.... so we made it to Wolf Lake! A generous sleep in is how we began the day (which in hindsight was brilliant). I was up way before everyone else and tried to find a better spot for my tent which didn't exist I realized after moving it all over the place. I laughed at Murdoch as he was near the edge of a 15-20 ft drop and had set up a couple barrier rocks to let him know if he was getting too close to the edge; he's learning. I took a hike up the ridge, eating blueberries along the way. The sky was crystal clear and the sun was peaking over top of the ridge as I watched a bunch of loons take off down the lake.

Murdoch's tent complete with 'barrier rocks'

Wake up and breakfast was once again a struggle even without having to pack anything up. Everyone was pretty exhausted which is expected I guess but overall the lethargy seems to be running rampant. I think we had pancakes but it could've been anything. By this point we were eating anything and everything. I had a few things I wanted to do that day, three things really. However, I knew that I'd only be able to do two probably as we didn't finish breakfast until 11 or something like that. The three options I told the kids about were

1. A hike up the Wolf Lake ridge - a pure bushwack but short and a great view at the top and not far away
2. Paradise Lagoon - a great waterfall that they will L.O.V.E.
3. The McConnell tower which we passed yesterday and I'm pretty sure we'd be able to climb. However, getting there is pure bush wacking and last time Anelynda and I did it it was mad tough, however this time I have a new approach (compass and map, haha) and it won't be so bad.

The general response was that of apathy so I got to decide that we'd be going to Paradise Lagoon and the McConnell tower. However at this point we'd have to seriously get going. We grabbed some lunch to eat at the lagoon and headed south leaving all our stuff at the campsite... ahh, empty boats. Somehow Murdoch and I were the last ones to push off and got to paddle together. What a dream, paddling through Chiniguchi on tropical blue waters under a crystal clear sky late August and heading to a waterfall to go swimming.... I really was in heaven.

After the 2.5 km paddle our arrival at the top of the stream was met by a whole bunch of other empty canoes. We weren't alone and there were tons of people around the lagoon. Fortunately our arrival at the lagoon bolstered some lame attitudes and the excitement returned, enough to be annoying to all the other groups and they left in short order. We had the place to ourselves. Murdoch had dug out the masks from sunny water, which no doubt were in Hokitika, and we could swim around and see everything. The water was HIGH and less clear than I've seen it before but the waterfall was just blasting. Murdoch and Kim went under it to get massaged by the falling water.

We ate lunch around 3pm and began our trek back up the lakes. The swift at the bottom of Silvester was basically non-existent due to the high water. Every site seemed to be filled with people though. We finally got back to the site around 4:30 and began to pack up to go on the hike to the tower. This is where my judgement was lacking. I specifically remember having this thought 'Oh, I should bring a headlamp just in case.' Then I responded, 'No, that will just give me an excuse to stay too late.' so, I decided against putting the headlamp in my bag (hindsight say this was a bad idea). The epidemic of lethargy had struck again and getting people moving was proving impossible. By the time we pulled out of camp it was 5pm, allowing 1.5 hours to get there and climb the mountain and 1.5 to get back. Ya, I'm not sure who I thought I was with or what kind of motors we were putting on our boats but it's probably a 6km paddle, not to mention the swamp portion or the 200m portage into Dewdney.

So, we got across the portage into Dewdney and paddled up it into the western half and then proceeded north into a small lake that would get us close to the base of the big hill. Oh wait, there is a beaver dam holding the entire lake up and now we're in a swamp. We had tried this way a couple years ago but didn't want to navigate the logs with the lower water. However, our forest trek that year didn't turn out so well and this year the water was higher so I thought this might work. We ended up getting pretty close to the dam, well, sort of. When it got too shallow we just had to get out and walk through the muck and drag our empty boats up the dam. Murdoch and I were on a roll moving those boats as he yelled about the pleasures of "Moose-Piss Pond". haha. But seriously, it did smell. Once above the dam we paddled up the small lake and took a good look at where the tower was and made a beeline towards the shore. Getting out was tricky as it was a bit swampy but we all changed our shoes and got ready for the bush wacking adventure of our lives....