"Cry Me a River."

Friday, August 4, 2006

3:32 am: We start 2 minutes behind schedule, but Bentley took full responsibility for those precious lost moments. With canoes in tow, the Scouts of Troop 405 head North toward the wilds of Canada. Our destination: Temiscaming, Quebec.

For the first few hours of the trip, excitements included sleeping and listening to the radio. Not much excitement on the car ride.

7:45 am: We cross the Peace Bridge into Canada. Amazingly, customs goes without a hitch and we are out of the country in record time.

We stop in Gravenhurst to eat lunch and to exchange money...not with each other, but from US to Canadian. Shortly after at the gas station, Bentley finds out that some gas stations do not accept traveler's checks. Luckily, we sold some supplies and washed dishes to pay the bill.

3:15 pm: We reach our night's lodging, the Auberge Canadian. The evening is fairly low key, just relaxation and enjoying our last glimpses of society. Kurt and Kent travel to the ZEC office to pay the fees for traveling in the Kipewa region for 2 days. We do not buy fishing licenses...because none of us fish.


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Saturday, August 5.

6:00 am: Reveille (a.k.a. beating on doors and yelling)

7:30 am: On the road to Lake McKillop

9:00 am: Canoes are being loaded and Kevin and Chris head to take the vehicles to Lake Charett (a.k.a. Lake Chevette) where we will arrive on Friday morning. By starting our trip on Lake McKillop, we cut a few unnecessary portages off of our voyage and one day of canoeing. We started at Lake McKillop because Kurt and Bentley had talked to someone who had just done this trip and advised them on how grueling it was and also the rough condition of the portages.

While we are waiting, we are amazed at how certain members of the troop resemble famous Americans.

11:00 am: Kevin and Chris arrive back to the launch point on bicycle. Kevin is very impressed with the quality of equipment we provided. We lock up the bikes in the brush and are on the lake. We immediately head toward an island where Rich and Jeff have done some exploring of a cabin.

12:30-1:30: Our first of many MRE lunches on the narrows between Lake McKillop and Lake Pants.

2:45-3:45: Our first portage (into Unnamed Lake) proves to be a very long one....which, unbeknownst to us, will be a theme for the week.

Shortly after, we portage into Lake L'Eschelle from 3:45- 4:15. This is our last portage of the day.

5:00 pm: We search for our campsite for the night among many pines and birches. When Dan and Kurt inspect what could have been a campsite, we find rather "fresh" Moose...well...Moose scat. Quickly we decide this is not the spot for us! Shortly down the narrows, Bentley discovers an abandoned (but overgrown) road to bed on. There are the remains of an old log cabin here. The night's dinner is ham and potatoes...delicious!

That night Bentley was morning the loss of his buck knife, one which his dad had given him. Dan could not get to bed because he kept laughing about how some of our scouts look like famous Americans.

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Sunday, August 6

After breakfast, the right reverend Tommy Bauer lead the troop in a brief, yet effective, Chapel service. Our reverence paid off because after moving the commissary box, alas, Jeff found Bentley's knife!

8:30 am: Our first full day of canoeing begins.

9:15 am: At the end of the lake, we could not seem to find the portage. Kurt and Dan pulled their canoe over 2 beaver dams and paddled through a shallow beaver meadow to find the portage, almost hidden. It turned out to be another long and arduous hike. There were many trees down on this portage, a harbringer of things to come.

10:15 Canal Lake

10:45 Intro Truite

11:30-12:30 Lunch at a very nice island on Truite; we all took some time to relax. On the way to the island Tom, Justin and Steve accidentally stopped at the wrong island and Tommy paddled away as Justin had one foot in the canoe?and one on a large rock. Needless to say the lunch break also gave Justin some time to dry out after swimming to the island.

1:30 - 3:00 Pomeroy Portage (1 mi.) into a large fishing camp on lake Pomeroy. Rich O'Neal had to search for his shoes in a large and very smelly puddle of mud. The portage was very grueling, but it lead to a sandy beach where we all rested for a bit.

3:00 We headed onto Pomeroy with our sights on an island in sight to spend the night; however, the wind started to form white caps on the water and it was very dangerous for a brief time as we headed into the waves to try to get to the island safely. On the lee side of the island we arrived safely and hiked the necessary gear to the campsite because we could not bring the canoes around to the drop point.

While on the island we enjoyed MRE's for dinner and relaxed after a very tense moment crossing the windy lake. While we were fishing on the island, Bentley got a snag and sent Corey out to unsnag the line?which he quickly was in over his head. But, like a true fisherman, he held his rod above his head.

A float plane kept landing near the island near the fishing camp which was exciting and provided some entertainment.

That night a bad storm approached so we quickly battened down the hatches in preparation. We weathered the storm well, but most of us got wet.


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Monday, August 7

Due to the storms keeping us up for at least an hour, after our breakfast of "breakfast burritos" (yum!) we got a late start...on the water @ 10:30 am.

11:30 am: Our first portage onto Eau Claire, which of course was uphill!

11:50 am: On the water again

12:00: Another portage which gave us a lot of trouble. At the top of the portage trail, we were not sure whether to go left or right. We sent out some ?scouting? parties to determine the direction we should travel. Kurt took a wrong turn and walked a mile down a snow mobile trail. At the end of this long and confusing portage, we stopped to have lunch next to an old abandoned truck. While we were eating, we discovered we did not have Chris with us. We found out he made a wrong turn and carried a canoe an extra mile. We should have taken the second portage farther down Lake Eau Claire. It was shorter and easier to follow.

Once on Lake Sassiginiga, we had one portage from 2:30- 3:30 into Lake ogascanane. This portage was at a boat launch. A car from Maryland was parked there. An uphill portage but on a road. There is an outhouse near the boat launch.

We were then faced with a medium shower which was enough to soak us through our woolrich jackets. The rain was not too bad because we found a nice campsite (marked with a star by Duke) with a sandy beach. We built a fire and tried to dry out from the rain and the storms the night before. We enjoyed tacos and pudding and dried out around the fire.


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Tuesday, August 8

6:00 Reveille

8:30 Left Ogascanane

10:30 am: Portage into the Lake of the Wolves. This was a good portage. Not to long and down hill.

Small Rapid into onto Kipawa River where 2 fishermen watched us brave the rapid.

We then proceeded down the river and managed two "Class 1" rapids without much incident. On the next "Class 2" rapids Chris, Evan and Mr. Dempsey capsized, but quickly and safely got to shore. This was after Kurt had told Chris that Kipawa stood for River Of Death. After the ordeal, we decided to eat lunch under the bridge. An exploration group found the grave marker of one Cecil McKenzie- good thing we found it after we shot those rapids. Cecil McKenzie drowned at this spot trying to rescue his dog that had fallen in the river.

We then proceeded to 300 yards of "Class 1" swifts. While on the swifts Rich and Jeff got hung up and Jamie and Pat T-boned the canoe, which sent Jeff and Rich into the water?but Jeff said they jumped out to "beat the heat."

The next adventure we refer to as Bentley's Folly. The map had marked a Class 1 rapid followed by a Class 2 immediately following. Bentley, Justin and Corey braved the Class 1 rapid and Kurt and Dan watched as they negotiated the water. Bentley tried to bring the canoe to shore after the first rapid to assess the next rapid, but the current was too strong and he had to make a run of it. What was supposed to be a Class 2 really was a Class 4 rapid that sent all of the passengers flying out of the canoe. They quickly got to shore and a portage began for the remaining 5 canoes. Bentley lost a hat and paddle to the Kipawa River that day. Later Kurt and Bentley realized that the 300 yard swifts really were the Class 1 rapids.

The day drug on with the group portaging around a group of 4 rapids: the infamous Moose Pass which was a horrible portage. It was uphill, rocky and muddy with many down trees. Once we struggled through that portage, it was not even 500 yards down we came to our next portage at Elliot Rapids. This would be our last portage to a very long day. Many trees were down on this portage also.

We left Eliot rapids at 7:20 pm and started down toward our resting place, Turner Falls. The canoes started moving more quickly as they heard the rush of the waterfalls ahead because we knew that would be home for until Friday morning.

8:20 pm: Once at the falls we quickly moved our gear to our campsite, leaving the canoes on shore at the end of the trail until the next day. To our disappointment, there were 2 groups camping at the falls, but they were very accommodating because they were leaving the next day. We ate a light dinner of cheese, crackers and summer sausage and went to bed. What a long day, but at least the river was behind us!

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Wednesday, August 9

Wednesday can be summed up quickly because the main goal of the day was to relax after canoeing the "river of death."

Up late
No Breakfast
Late Lunch (which was supposed to be Tuesday's dinner)
Fishing
The boys moved the canoes to the other end of the portage?trying to avoid the group of girls at the falls.
Yes, there was a group of girls at the falls, which were met by another group of girls...who all left prior to dinner.

That night we enjoyed steaks and potatoes. A light rain shower came through that night.


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Thursday, August 10

Thursday was a cold day and mainly was another day for rest and relaxation. Kevin showed the scouts how to make "monkey's fists" and a lot of fishing was done to allow us to have a fish fry that evening.


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Friday, August 11

We left the falls at 9:00 am and reached our one and only portage at 9:20 am. From 9:50 to 11:00 we paddled to our destination, Lake Charette. Once there we discovered that the trailer had a low tire, but we pumped it up with our portable air system. Despite the flat and unloading gear and loading canoes, we were on the road by 11:30...well, if you can call it a road. Then we went to retrieve the bikes we left behind at the start of our trip.

On the dusty road back, Bentley noticed he had a flat tire...which turned out to be one flat bare tire and one leaky back tire. After learning a quick lesson on the inner workings of a Chevrolet Trailblazer's spare tire, we used fix a flat on one tire and pumped up the other and attempted to get to town on "borrowed time." We made it back to town safely and the tires got patched as we got settled at the hotel.

That evening we showered and had a good time hanging out after our long river trip.


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Saturday, August 12

We left the hotel at 9:00 am and headed to North Bay to get 2 brand new tires for his blazer. While in North Bay we had breakfast and stopped at a few shops.
10:00 am: We left North Bay headed for home.

5:15 pm: We crossed the Peace Bridge into the States.

7:00: Arrived in PA

Unloaded and Pizza


Copyright © 2007
Written by Daniel T. Brown
Submitted by Kurt Larson, Troop 405