wrote on Jun 20^th, 2010 at 11:17pm:

Glad to see you are back and safe. MagicPaddler

Like you, my trip was not without its challenges.  The most challenging of which was a strained/torn muscle along the right side of my back.  This was one of the reasons that I made an abrupt turn-around in my route.  I'd originally planned to make it as far as Rostoul Lake with potential side trips to Hammerhead and/or Gammon-Royd.  In fact, I'd packed a "welcome" banner to place at the Royd portage to welcome Kingfisher and Jimbo to a more challenging part of their route in July.

The back problem was a consequence of doing a "save."  Between Glenn and Hansen are a couple of portages and a chute.  I've negotiated chutes in Quetico and a couple in WCPP without real problems, but after I had committed to run the chute I approached a point where the water dropped at least a foot and was swirling ... custom made point for a dumping.  Luckily, there was a flat rock outcropping on the right side of the chute that looked like I could land on and then lower my canoe below the troublesome point in the chute.  This would have been a relatively simple procedure in a tandem, but something of a challenge in a solo.  I did manage to get my canoe up on the "shelf" enough that I could step out into about 6 inches of water.  However, as I exited the canoe the current grabbed the backend of my boat and started to swing it over the lip of the flow.  With right hand, I grabbed a knob of rock and with left hand got a hand hold on my canoe.  After what seemed like a couple of minutes of struggle, I managed to get the canoe successfully anchored to the rock shelf.  Getting the fully loaded canoe over the rock slab was not that big of a deal since there a couple of pieces of beaver wood conveniently located there to act as roller bearings.  Soon, I was off and seeking a pictograph known to be on Hansen.  It wasn't until later, when I retired for the evening that I realized that the muscle was in a knot (enough of one that I could feel it sliding over a rib a time or two) and a set-up action produced severe pain.

Thus, this physical inconvenience plus the volume of water coming down the chute (and the "step up" in the chute) percipitated my decision to evaluate alternatives for my exit, but clearly suggested that going deeper into the park would NOT be in my best interests.

I'll cover the details of my "extraction" in a daily report to come.

dd