Day 9:  Tuesday, June 15th

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I initially stirred shortly after 4:00, when the early risers in the avian community began their morning songs.  I managed to tune out the “entertainment” until 6:15.  Today is a travel day, but it will be a short day in that respect.  I began my pack-up by storing all the contents of my tent in their designated pouches and bags.  In turn, each item was placed by my exit door for easy access when the final break-down and pack-up began.  This was a typical procedure on travel days … no need to re-enter the tent after exiting.  I could easily reach each item and place it directly into a pack without the item ever touching the ground.  So even when packing up wet, almost all of the “tent gear” went into my pack still dry.

I then proceeded to my cooking area to get my “standard” breakfast going.  Much of my cooking gear (e.g., extra stove, fuel, etc.) had already been packed away, so it wasn’t necessary to assemble what I needed for breakfast.  I quickly consumed by oatmeal.  My coffee would be casually as I continued to break camp.  In fact, on most travel days, the coffee cup was the last thing to be packed.  This day was no exception.   However, almost all other kitchen pack items were soon cleaned, stored and set aside for loading.

As I went about my breakdown, I reflected on today’s destination.  During the previous evening, I had debated about stopping on Telescope or pressing on to Hjlarmar.  I’d already visited the eastern end of Telescope and checked out both the available campsite and portage into what is labeled Hjlarmar Lakes—a chain of lakes connected by relatively short portages.  My travel time to the eastern end of the lake seemed almost not worth the effort.  Yet, I didn’t want to get hung up by being wind bound on this island with no prospect of reaching my exit on schedule.  Ultimately, I decided to push on to Hjlarmar.  If the campsite I’d marked from the park database was unusable, I could always back track to the eastern end of Telescope.  However, if the campsite was usable, it would put me perhaps an hour closer to my exit and provide ample opportunity to search out the supposed pictograph site near the campsite on Hjlarmar.  I decided to press on.

Camp breakdown could have gone more quickly, but with a short travel day I was in no hurry.  It looked after all, as though the weather was going to cooperate.  This morning I had broken clouds and a very light breeze from the east.  Travel, was going to be easy if these conditions held.  It was sufficiently warm that I decided to go with a long-sleeved shirt WITHOUT an underneath tee-shirt.  I only needed the long sleeve to ward off potential bugs that I might encounter on the portages or when I reached my destination.  As it turned out, the absence of bugs would continue, so the long-sleeves were rolled up before long.

I departed camp at 8:45 and took the counter-clockwise route around my island.  Yet it wasn’t long before I could again see the cabins on the shore to my north.  I watched the cabins as I paddled by.  There were no sounds and I saw no activity.  So either yesterday’s float plane landing was only doing a check of the camp or the drop-off passengers were not early risers.  In any case, this would be another day when I did not encounter another person.   This was somewhat surprising since I’m clearly on an entry route where I would suspect at least some level of traffic, and yet the only people I’m seeing are part of the fly-in trade for cabin/motor boat visitors.

In less than an hour and a half, I’ve covered the remaining length of Telescope Lake.  I was grateful that I’d not experience any conditions that would have prevented me from traveling (which was true for the entire trip).  As I reached the first portage, I could now easily pull up into shallower water to disembark, due to my clearing activity from the previous day.  However, despite the lack of rain, the portage remained wet.  The paddle over the next section went quickly and I was soon ready for the next portage.  I had a notation on my map that suggested this portage might be skipped if the water was sufficiently high.  I decided to give it a try … this one was AGAINST the small amount of flow.  Everything was going without a problem until I selected the wrong channel and finally had to step out to pull my canoe through a rocky narrow.  Unfortunately, I made the same mistake a second time resulting in the same pull-through requirement; beyond, the section of Hjlarmar Lakes where my next potential campsite was located.

A short paddle put me at the location.  Unfortunately, what appeared to be the best take-out location was pretty much covered by deadfall … at least enough that there was no way for me to reach the shore line take-out ledge and parallel park … and there was a significant drop off into deep water beyond the ledge.  So, I selected a less desirable, brushy spot to park until I could check out the camp.  

It was 11:30 as I walked around the campsite.  The site had not likely been used in years.  There be  shoveled fire ring contained growing weeds and the only open spot that provided a tent pad option was about six inches deep in low shrub growth.  The eastern Telescope site was clearly better; however, this location could be made useful with little effort.  So stay it is.

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Hljarmar campsite cooking area (fire ring up and to the left)
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Hljarmar campsite tent pad area

After my camp set-up and lunch, I made a half-hearted attempt to clear the front of the campsite.  I did remove sufficient deadfall to pull my canoe parallel to the ledge, but I was reluctant to actually have my canoe parked here.  In addition to the deadfall I’d cleared, where were other downed and other leaning deadfall that, with a gust of wind, could come crashing down.  I’d not be coming and going too often here, so I chose to continue to use the less desirable, brushy option.  

The sky continued to exhibit broken clouds.  In addition, the day had warmed considerably, with the temperature running in the mid-70’s.  Yet, there was a cooling breeze which made the day very comfortable.  Perhaps it was the combination of weather conditions, a little exertion to do some brush clearing or perhaps the realization that the end of the trip was near.  For whatever reason, I started to become a bit drowsy.  So I went in search of the pocket-sized, nylon-mesh hammock I often take on backwoods excursions.  I soon found a couple of suitable trees and the hammock lashed up.  It wasn’t an ideal setup because of a hump of rock roughly in the middle of my set-up, but it was only barely touching the hammock and it made for an easy push-off tool.  It must have been comfortable because I napped for nearly an hour, only changing positions when a shaft of sunlight became bothersome on my face.

After my snooze, I immediately took down the hammock.  No need to have extra gear strung out to pack up tomorrow.  I’d also made the decision not to deploy my cooking fly unless conditions threatened.  So, I took the “minimalist” campsite strategy throughout my stay.  

By 3:00, it was time to do something else.  I had neglected to collect my camp water supply before disembarking and I also wanted to spend some time looking for the pictograph that was supposed to be just a short distance beyond my camp on the north shoreline.  As I paddled down the narrow channel of the lake, inspecting each probable location for a pictograph, I soon performed an “all back full” as I glided past a suspect location.  This pictograph could be easily missed because of its faded condition, but it was clear, mostly by color and shape, that a man’s hand was at work here.  After a close inspection, I was relative sure that the central figure was of a turtle, with perhaps a caribou shape beneath.  There was another shape above the turtle, but it was impossible for me to discern its meaning.  Another oddity with this collection of shapes was that it ran to the rounded edge of the rock and there also appears to be additional (non-descript) marks beyond the rounded edge.  In other words, if you were viewing the pictograph from directly ahead, you could easily miss the additional marks to the left.

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Hljarmar Pictographs

After snapping a few photo’s, I continued to paddle these narrow waters.  The more I paddled, the more this place reminds me of Isabella Lake in Quetico.  It is long and narrow (although the “lakes” are separated by short portages) with more evidence of vertical shoreline that has been typical of the lakes on much of my trip.  And while lakes with these characteristics can feel spooky at times, my feeling on this lake is one of calm and comfort.  No doubt these feelings are assisted by the warmth of the day and the lack of anything like threatening weather.  As I returned to camp, I stopped long enough to re-fill my water bladder.  There was no need to get a full load on this stop.  The water supply would only be needed for dinner and breakfast and none of my upcoming meals were ones requiring a large volume of water.  

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Hljarmar campsite-view to the east
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Hljarmar campsite-view to the west
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Hljarmar campsite-view to the south

Upon reaching my take-out point and parking my canoe, I noticed that one of the clips I used to anchor my spare paddles had come loose.  Since tomorrow promised the most lengthy portages of the trip, I decided that it would not do to leave this problem unattended.  I dropped off the water bladder on my way through the cooking area and proceeded on to my tent area to secure my small bottle of superglue that I almost always travel with.  Today, it will be used to do a clip repair and replacement.  However, the glue is in my medical kit because it is sometimes used to close and seal-up problematic cuts or cracks on my fingers where a bandage is not a practical solution.  It doesn’t take long to do the repair, and while waiting for the glue to dry, I decide that I’ll not likely be using my fishing gear again.  So, I proceed to do my fishing rod break-down and storage.  This will make my load-up quicker tomorrow when I reach the exit.  

I also used this time to look around for other items that were loose and needed to be put away for tomorrow’s travel.  My aim was to hit the ground running tomorrow and make it to the Onnie EP parking lot by noon.  If I could maintain that kind of schedule, I’d be back in Red Lake by 1:30 to 2:00.  That would give my ample time to search out a service station to fill-up, get my flat tire repaired, grab some lunch and make it to Kenora before dark.  (I’d previously made a reservation to stay in Kenora on the night of my exit.)  

Dinner this evening was Teriyaki noodles with re-hydrated chicken.  It is a “quick fix” meal other than the time it takes to re-hydrate the chicken but I have plenty of time for water to work into the chicken chunks before I have to fire up the stove.  The actual cooking time for the noodles is about 15 minutes, with no draining necessary.  This is one of my “go to” meals when I’m looking for something that is quick to fix, but is still very tasty.  This is also a one-pot meal, which means clean-up goes very fast ... even faster on a solo trip because I tend to eat directly from the cooking pan because there is no one else to serve.

As I consumed my dinner, I noticed that overcast had begun to build.  I was concerned about the prospect of a potential rain setting in, making my gear wet and tomorrow’s portages more challenging.  However, the overcast soon abated and there was no rain for the remainder of my trip.  In addition the, winds remained light and variable.

Since dinner, clean-up, and what amount of packing had been completed, I still had some time to kill.  I finally decided to give the radio another try.  On past attempts, I’d only been able to pull in a single station and on my limited amount of listening; I had deduced that it was focused on popular music.  As it turned out, this was again the only station I was able to pull in.  However, I wasn’t as hasty to change to another to try to find another station this time.  I was soon able to deduce that the station was broadcasting from Kenora and they did have a brief weather report at the top and bottom of each hour for a few points between Atikokan and Kenora.  The jest of the report was that there was a chance of showers tomorrow afternoon.  Hopefully that forecast will extend to my travel route to reach a hard-surfaced road … I wouldn’t look forward to doing the dirt/gravel road from the Onnie EP to Red Lake with it raining.

As I prepared to turn in for the evening, I prepositioned as much of my gear as possible to be as close to the canoe as I could get it but still in the protection of a tree overhang just in case it DID decide to rain overnight.  As I entered my tent, I initially took precaution not to hit any of the underlying vegetation in the hopes of avoiding a puncture in the bottom of my tent.  Earlier, I had decided that the prospects of a puncture would be less if I chose NOT to do any cutting and clearing.  This would also allow the vegetation to more easily recover once I had departed.  As it turned out, the springiness of the vegetation was more like a mattress and produce very comfortable sleeping.  And, yes.  I did avoid any punctures!

Next:  Day 10:  On a mission to reach the Onnie EP