Up at 5:30. Pizza and carrot cake for breakfast and then we packed up and headed out. The White Otter turned out to be fine, butI will mention one complaint. It seems like none of the showers in any of the rooms has a shower head. Of course you don't realize it until you are naked and actually ready to get wet. But upon pulling up the shower activator, you are hit with a hose-like jet of water. It was like showering in the car wash. Later when I went to say something to the manager about it, his only reply was to explain that he knew about the problem and was having issues getting parts. Oh well.
We drove to the outfitters, loaded our gear into the outfitter’s van and hit the road. The first 30 minutes is on a paved highway. It was a beautiful but lonely stretch. We didn’t see a single car.
Eventually we turned off on a gravel logging road and bounced and rattled for about 45 minutes until mercifully we came to our destination.
The guide dropped us off and pointed out the path to the water. “See ya in a week!”, he said. So we loaded up and started down the trail. Fortunately the youngsters volunteered to carry the heavy 18 foot canoes, saving the old guys from some potentially trip threatening mishaps.
It was hairy- steep, wet, rocky and long. With my heavy, awkward Duluth pack and slippery soled shoes,I managed to slip and fall a total of five times on back and forth trips. I was beat up and bleeding by the time we had schlepped all of our stuff to the water but fortunately there was no permanent damage. We finally got the canoes packed up and on the water.
Mark had a map, Nate had a map and Kos had GPS on his watch. Kos had also brought walkie-talkie radios. How could we ever get lost? Pretty easily as it turned out. We immediately took off in the wrong direction and after an hour of paddling, we came to a dead end. In our defense, scale is very hard to judge in Quetico. Because the lakes are so big, it is easy to mistake a bay for a bigger body of water. When we were back in Atikokan, there was a group of 14 Boy Scouts right behind us. Now we feared that they could potentially beat us to the prime campsites. As we retraced our route and returned to nearly where we had started, we could see them preparing to launch from the put-in point.
Back on the right path, we made our way out of Stanton Bay and out onto Pickerel Lake. Pickerel is a fickle lake that can change its mood on a moment’s notice, from glassy to three foot waves in a heartbeat. You never know until you are out in the middle. Fortunately it was relatively calm and the wind was at our backs. It was still early in the day so we stopped a few times for pit stops, snacks and to stretch our legs.
We entered Rawn Narrows and followed it until it opened up into the lake. We circled the island at the head of the lake, searching for the prime campsite. Nate and Kos weren’t so sure, but we found the site on the east end of the island on a perfect granite rise that came gradually out of the water 25’ up. We have an unobstructed panorama to the east end of the lake. There is a dropoff at the water’s edge that is perfect for swimming, 3+ tent sites and easy fishing. And the loons were singing. What more could you ask for?
(Mark) Dinner of Karen’s excellent chili. Kos caught a nice pike and a walleye—two firsts. Nate built a fire on the overlook, Kos took a lot of photos with the Nikon F3 film camera and 20mm lens and N&K stayed up to see Orion and the Milky Way.
Cool, damp night (the area got 3-4 inches of rain just before we got here and the woods are lush and green.
Equipment, etc.— One stove leaks gas, one does not adjust low, water bag needs new spout, reels need to be lubed, do not bring binoculars, new blades for saws, nomad movie, new plastic food containers, new 20 liter dry bag (or repair), only used 1.5 bottles of green gas, only 1.5 pkgs bagels, only 1.5 pkgs tortillas, only 1 bag coffee,
Tents: Mountain Hardwear Drifter2 2-door, Nemo Aurora 2P straight-wall 2-door, Big Agnes Seedhouse2 1 front door.
Kos' Kamock