Either to rest properly, or in a lame effort to avoid the 2.5 km portage, I did not get out of bed until 11 am on Saturday. By the time I had breakfasted and loaded up the canoe it was past noon. It was a short 5 minute paddle across the lake to the portage point and the BIG PORTAGE began at 12:30 pm.
I had calculated that the portage should require 3600 steps so I originally broke it into 7 stages of about 500 steps each. Lug the canoe for 500 steps, drop it and return for the pack and lug that to the canoe. I also decided that I would take 5 minute breaks between each stage.
As it turned out the path was easier than I had originally assumed and after the first stage I decided to alter the plan to 6 stages each of 600 steps. That might not sound like a big difference but when you are being buzzed by deer flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes while lugging a canoe on your head - those extra 100 steps are huge. I had also included a mandatory 20 minute lunch break at what I assumed was the halfway point.
To make a long story short, the path did get a bit worse but after almost 4 hours I made it to the end looking a bit worse for the wear but extremely proud of my accomplishment. Other than a quick picture to record the occasion, I spent little time congratulating myself and instead loaded up the canoe and headed for the middle of the lake to get away from the bugs.
After 4 hours of continuous buzzing around my head the quiet of no bugs was almost orgasmic.
The site I had chosen to stay that night was short paddle away and I quickly set up camp and awaited the first star of the night. Luckily I was again facing south and at 9:35 the fire was lit.
Either to rest properly, or in a lame effort to avoid the 2.5 km portage, I did not get out of bed until 11 am on Saturday. By the time I had breakfasted and loaded up the canoe it was past noon. It was a short 5 minute paddle across the lake to the portage point and the BIG PORTAGE began at 12:30 pm.
I had calculated that the portage should require 3600 steps so I originally broke it into 7 stages of about 500 steps each. Lug the canoe for 500 steps, drop it and return for the pack and lug that to the canoe. I also decided that I would take 5 minute breaks between each stage. 
As it turned out the path was easier than I had originally assumed and after the first stage I decided to alter the plan to 6 stages each of 600 steps. That might not sound like a big difference but when you are being buzzed by deer flies, horse flies, and mosquitoes while lugging a canoe on your head - those extra 100 steps are huge. I had also included a mandatory 20 minute lunch break at what I assumed was the halfway point.
To make a long story short, the path did get a bit worse but after almost 4 hours I made it to the end looking a bit worse for the wear but extremely proud of my accomplishment. Other than a quick picture to record the occasion, I spent little time congratulating myself and instead loaded up the canoe and headed for the middle of the lake to get away from the bugs. 
After 4 hours of continuous buzzing around my head the quiet of no bugs was almost orgasmic.
The site I had chosen to stay that night was short paddle away and I quickly set up camp and awaited the first star of the night. Luckily I was again facing south and at 9:35 the fire was lit.
1 comment:
poor you, buut love the photo of the reflection of the sky in the lake!
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