I slept in until after seven and awoke to a beautiful blue sky day. I fished for breakfast but the oatmeal was OK. As I was eating it a moose came out on the shore of the lake to feed. There are a lot of float planes flying this morning. The birds are singing and the bugs are absent. A male Harrier is hunting the grassy shoreline. His black wing tips really stand out in the early morning sun.

At noon I finally pulled out of camp and headed for the 2000 meter portage. I headed down the wet trail which ran along the stream. Soon I got into water so deep that I put the canoe back in the water and paddled back down the stream and picked up the rest of my gear. This time I paddled up to the beaver dam that had raised the water level and was able to enter the portage trail. It crossed another stream that was really up too. Needless to say it was not long before I had a boot full of water. Then the trail entered a nice Jack Pine forest. I set the canoe down and went back for the other load. I carried this load five minutes past the canoe before setting it down and going back to leapfrog the canoe five minutes past that point. This way after every ten minute carry I have a five minute walk in the woods to rest. The portage followed an ATV trail before leaving it and heading to the lake. The leapfrog system worked so well that I did the 2000 meters with no pain. On the 950 meter portage to Indian House Lake I carried things too far and ended up getting really tired before it was over.

Indian House Lake was so calm and smooth it was eerie. My goal was to find a good camp spot on the south end so I would not get trapped on the big water by any winds. A spot at the entrance to the narrows was just perfect. It provided a view of the big lake but would let me escape into the narrows even if the wind came up. For the second time on the trip there was already a smooth place for my tent to go up. It went up as soon as I landed because the weather looked iffy.

The portages today were long but it feels like a day off because I only traveled for three and a half hours. The rest of the trip will be slow paced with no big water to worry about.

While out trolling for supper I lost my good Daredevle and thought the fish dinners might be done. I tied on a fake "Five of Diamonds" and caught two Northern for supper. It started to thunder while I was on the lake and I headed for camp. I had been circling a big island and thought camp was just ahead but it wasn’t. I stopped and thought for a while and knew that if I kept going around the island I would recognize the point I was camped on. I made it back to camp and the storm hit a short time later. After it passed I had a real feast of fried fish and hashbrowns.

It is now near sunset and there is a thunderstorm passing north of Indian House Lake. It has been a day of summertime temperatures and summertime storms. If the film could capture the mood on the lake this evening I would take a picture. If the picture was taken it would only show one dimension. All that you would see would be clouds, water and trees. Missing would be the wind in the treetops and its touch on your cheek, the frogs chorus, the bugle of the Sandhill Crane and the water lapping the shore. The occasional thunder from the storm five miles away competing with the call of the loon. The loon’s call being such a important element of any precious memory from canoe country.

The animals up here seem to know when I am trying to get to sleep. Tonight a moose came swimming across the narrows near camp just as light was fading. The noise it was making was new to me. It seemed to be trying to clear its nostrils as it swam. Deer do this all the time to get a better sense of smell but I had never heard the noise from a moose.

Sunday May 27

When I first awoke it was raining and since there was no rush to get going I just went back to sleep. Later when I arose the rain was gone and the weather looked good. The travel was pleasant and I did a lot of loitering on this Sunday morning. I had the camera out and took some pictures of a Moccasin Flower and other plant life along some of the portages. As I neared Crystal Lake the portages were getting pretty boggy. At one I was taking a break and getting a drink when two Boreal Chickadees showed up. I "phished" and the sound drew them closer and a Wilsons Warbler popped his head out too.

The portage from Crystal to Bell Lakes provided another great rest spot. The area has been burned recently so the vegetation was rather sparse. The portage was marked with a rock cairn in the absence of a tree big enough for a blaze mark. There was no wind and the sky was littered with large puffy clouds.

As I paddled up the narrow section of Bell Lake there was a lot of bird activity so I pulled in to shore to check out the area. A Broad-winged Hawk landed just above me and looked around for a few minutes. After he had flown away I went on shore and spotted White throated sparrows, Chipping Sparrows and Yellow-rumped warblers. The narrows had very scenic rounded rock on both sides. The soil was so sparse that the trees were widely spaced which allowed a good view deep into the forest.

On the portage that starts at " Rocky the Beavers" dam I saw a huge shed moose antler lying on the trail. Rocky gets his name from the fact that the dam had a lot of rock pushed up onto it in the absence of mud. My goal for the day was Hatchet Lake. When I arrived there I looked for a good spot that would give some relief from the bugs that were getting bothersome. A little ways down the lake there was a moose feeding and past her I spotted a nice spot to check out for a camp. It ended up being a very good spot and a tent pad was cleared and an attempt for a fish fry was made. The beef stew that I rehydrated was really tasty. I headed to bed early and one last walk around the site revealed a nice eating size northern swimming by.

Monday May 28

It was so warm last night that I had a trouble getting to sleep. As a consequence I did not get up until 6:30. Everything had been packed the night before so I only had to stuff my sleeping bag and get it secured inside a plastic bag to insure that it would remain dry. The tent came down and with a final inspection of the campsite to make sure I left no reminders of anyone having been there I shoved off. After paddling out from shore a ways I tossed out a deep diving lure in hopes of getting a Lake Trout for breakfast. Unfortunately within a mile a shallow reef crossing the lake had cut my line and I had to tie on the fake "Five of Diamonds" spoon. Maybe it was not so unfortunate after all because right away the rod was jerking back and forth. I grabbed the rod and set the hook. As soon as I did it was apparent by the struggle at the other end of the line that it was too big a northern to keep. When the fish first let me have a glimpse of it I wondered how a pike of its size could put up such a fight. A short time later when it surfaced the mystery was solved. Hanging on to the end of that spoon was a nice Lake Trout. After maneuvering the canoe to shore I stepped out and landed my breakfast trout by hand. And that was the "plan." While I stuffed myself with trout, hashbrowns and hot coffee two gulls and a loon gathered for the leftovers. The loon pestered the gulls while I ate but I had never seen it happen that way before. I would not have been surprised if a Bald Eagle tried to get the scraps but the loon surprised me.

There were two more moose before I reached the fly-in camp near the portage to Douglas Lake. I had to paddle north on Douglas Lake into a very stiff headwind but I was taking it happily because I knew that I had three times as far to travel south on Douglas Creek after I made the turn into it. A large beaver dam on Douglas Creek required me to put the rope on the canoe and pull it up a roaring sluiceway on the north side. The rope came in handy a short time later as I was able to paddle and pull through the small stretch of fast water and avoid a short portage.

The rest of the morning was spent letting the wind push me down the channels to Onnie Lake and the last campsite of the trip. There is an island campsite on Onnie but I was determined to find a spot to camp on the shore of the lake. I wanted to avoid the islands entirely because of their use for calving. On a point across from the island campsite I found what I was looking for. It had been used before but not in a long time. The site sits about 15 feet above the water and offers views in all but one direction. There were ample spots to put up a number of tents and some very nice built in seating around a nice place to have a fire. After clearing some of the fallen wood from around the site I placed a rock cairn on the shore to mark it for others because you cannot see how nice it is from the water.

Thirteen days in here and I have too many things to do on my last afternoon. The sun came out and there was enough fuel left that I even heated my bath water. The trip started with three liters of fuel and the Peak One stove full. After the bath all the fuel I have left is in the stove. If it had been colder I would have had to use a wood fire a few times to make it. It takes a lot longer on a cold day to boil water than it does on a warm one.

When I finish eating lunch there are so many things that I want to do but my plan is to just sit here on this sunny rock. There are fish in the lake, the big rock wall to climb, shoreline to explore and woods to tromp but for now I will let things come to me on this sunny rock.

Tuesday May 29

The morning dawned clear and cool. As I cross the lake I think back on the concert the loons put on last night. A loon on one arm of the lake would start a series of calls that I had never heard before and another loon would repeat the same sequence. They are silent right now but the thick fog with the rising sun hitting it as it moves across the lake makes this the prettiest morning of the trip.

My trip had come to a close. I have stuffed my sleeping bag the final time. The facts of my trip end up as follows: canoe approximately 150 miles, thirteen of those miles over portages and 13 nights camping out. They are the facts but the real trip is only in my mind. I have taken pictures and written this journal but that combination does not come close to presenting what the trip truly was.