Kingfisher wrote on Oct 12th, 2014 at 9:39pm:| In 2013 Mastertangler and I were traveling in solo canoes to Conmee from Poohbah through the Memory Lane portages. We got an early start and finished the first of the three “memorable” portages in good time with me about 15 minutes ahead of the Tangler. I stopped at what I thought was the landing for the second portage and began scouting. The grass was trampled, trees were saw cut and there was a definite trail but it looked woefully unmaintained very unlike the portage we had just done. I’m working up a sweat tramping farther and farther along this faint trail clearing brush and marking a route when Mastertangler comes along and asks what are you doing? I told him that I was moving full speed ahead and was ready to hack through this portage. He failed to fully hold back a chuckle and then stated with complete calm and superior logic that this can’t be the trail because it doesn’t look as used as the last portage we did and that anyone passing through that portage would be going through this one as well. Of course since I was the self -appointed team leader reluctant to admit I was wrong so I insisted with an inappropriate amount of arrogance that we begin portaging our stuff and stop wasting time talking about it. Mastertangler quietly and calmly got in his solo canoe and pushed off heading east along the shoreline. Several minutes later he returned to tell me that he had found the real portage. I was trying to use an old portage trail that probably hadn’t been maintained in several years and would have caused us all kinds of grief if we had actually used it. His deliberation and calm reasoning saved us a ton of work. It also made me realize that I had prejudged him because of an earlier incident and was not giving him due respect. It was a humbling experience that I am grateful for and have not forgotten. |
Funny. I'm 100% sure you found the opposite end of the "trail" that Tim and I followed on our Trans-Quetico trek. You saved yourself hours of frustration by admitting your mistake.