Getting to Camp

After lunch we loaded the canoe and headed out. Low water levels exposed a rock garden at shore that made loading the canoe difficult. A bit of paint was left behind, I wish that was the only thing left behind...

The swampy water near the landing wasn't good for drinking, but it was nice scenery to paddle through. We accidentally scared a duck even though we were trying to travel politely. The duck insisted on swimming right in front of us, then it would squawk at us, fly a few dozen feet, only to repeat the ordeal. It eventually got the idea and flew to the side instead of directly in front. The channel really was big enough for all of us.

Drinking at Last

It was around this time that I realized another mistake — my water bottle was at the other end of the trail! We talked about going back to get it, but ultimately decided against it. The kids (and probably me too) were really over worked and we still needed to find a campsite. We walked over 5km and ate lunch late. Hopefully another camper picked it up and got some use out of it.

We filled the remaining water bottles and drank straight from the lake (the tablets take four hours). Drinking untreated water is not a good idea, but dehydration is not a good idea either. On the safety side, I decided that we had already been drinking purified water so there was probably already some solution in our stomachs. If not, then any contaminants would probably get killed by drinking treated water a few hours later. That was my thinking anyhow, I won't claim it is scientific or even medically sound — but we did it and we lived to tell the tale.

Lessons

Speaking of living to tell the tell, here are some final thoughts on things learned on our long portage. I've been calling them mistakes, but I think mistakes are things you do even though you know better. In our case we didn't have the experience to know a better way. Now that we do know better, I'm writing this section as a reminder so that we don't have to call them mistakes on the next trip.

Three things we could do better are:

1. Water, water, have it everywhere. This one is pretty simple and I've already over-described it. In addition to having clean water while portaging, I'll think about taking a second 2L container so that more water can be treated at once. We've learned that we use more than 2L of water on a portage like this.

2. Be aware of gear location. I took the food barrel on the first trip, and then didn't have access to lunch until we completed the portage. Better planning, even making lunch ahead of time, would have helped. A lunch break in the middle of the trail would have given us more energy for the second half of the portage.

3. Better loads for the kids. At this point in the trip, we hadn't figured out who was taking what on each load. The experience of this portage helped us improve for later portages, we should keep that up. We distributed bags differently so that everyone had three loads, and we tried to make the middle load lighter than the other two. This gives some time for recuperation in the middle of the portage. As we get stronger and/or take less gear, we might be able to eliminate the middle load.

Looking for a Site

We would be spending two nights on Carl Wilson Lake so we wanted to find a nice site for our rest day. The first part of the lake is a channel that has one site. It was available but we passed it by because we wanted to get out into the lake proper. Also, the shape of the lake puts towering cliffs between this site and the sunset. We like to see the sun set.

Jake's Favourite Site

The site that Jake described on our first day is not far from where the channel opens into the lake so we headed that way. There was a bit of wind at this point, which kept us close to shore. Following the shore makes for a longer trip but is safer in case we dump. We never came close but better safe than sorry I guess.

Even going the long way around the shore, it wasn't long before we got to Jake's site and found that we all agreed with him. It is on a bit of a point and has a great view of the cliffs. There is a small island in front, which should protect the site from wind off the lake. The shore has a gently sloping rock, which would make a great place to swim. Unfortunately, the family we met on the portage also agreed with Jake and were already setting up! Good for them, not so good for us ☹

We waved and continued on our way. We were closer to the west side of the lake, so we decided to continue south on this side. Sites on this side would not get a sunset view, our goal had shifted from perfect site to trying to find a site. Part of this was because the long portage was starting to catch up with Katherine.

Homesick Again

This time Katherine's mood lasted longer than it had the previous afternoon. She worried that we would not find any site at all. We talked about reservations and how there will be at least one site for us on the lake. We would find it eventually (I hoped). I think that main problem was being tired, so I pointed out that it is OK to take a rest from paddling hoping that she would get some energy back. The advice was ignored, and she continued to paddle most of the time anyhow.

When we pulled up to the next site, we found a paddle standing near shore. There was a canoe in the middle of the lake that seemed to have come from that direction. I think they pulled in, left the paddle to show that the site was taken, and then headed out to get water or fish or something (wilderness groceries). I wish that I had marked the location of that site on the Spot device, but didn't think of it at the time. I think the site is further south than indicated on the canoe map. It seems to be right at the northern tip of the nature reserve zone, not near the creek from Lismer Lake as shown on the map.

Seeing the site taken made Katherine feel even more discouraged. From there we were also able to see that two sites on the east shore were occupied, which didn't help. We pulled into shore for a washroom break.

Finding Our Site

While at shore, we had a snack of granola bars and a bit of a think. William and Katherine sat in the canoe, I stood in shallow water to keep the boat steady. I showed them both the map and we talked about our plan. There were two more sites on this side of the lake, but we weren't able to spot the signs yet.

I think that looking at the map helped both of their confidence. On future trips we'll take extra maps so that everyone can see progress on their own. I think that having a better idea of where we're going helped, and it is also a good chance to learn about comparing the map to the landscape.

Based on our best guess, we needed to get around a point in order to see the last two sites. We were quite surprised when after only a short paddle we stumbled across the first of the sites! They weren't around the point at all, they were right beside us! This particular site looked dark, so we decided to keep it in mind. We could now see the other site and went in for a closer look.

When we got to there, we found a very rocky approach. It might be possible to land when the water is higher, but not for us. However, the site is on a point so we headed around to the "back door" and found a very nice landing. By this point Katherine had recovered enough say that she didn't think the site was very good, and that we should look for another. She went from "we'll never get any site" to "let's keep browsing" in less than an hour.

I decided that we all had enough work for the day, and this actually was "nice enough." Luckily, it turned out to be the right choice, we had a great time for our two days there. Being a little dark wasn't really a problem, the kids find fun things to do in any place.