A Through-Paddle from Ely to Atikokan
Rod Franz
Day Four 7/10/02 Day one on the water. (Moose Lake, New Found Lake,
Sucker Lake, Prairie Portage, Birch Lake, Bayley Bay, Burke Lake, North Bay.)
Up at 5:30 AM to pack and go. Breakfast at 7:00, but departure delayed until
9:00 pending arrangements for pickup at end of trek. Nine crewmembers in three
canoes. Each canoe is loaded with one food or kitchen pack, and one Personal
Gear pack. The two food packs start the trip at 80 to 90 lbs. with the kitchen
pack marginally lighter. Each personal gear pack weighs in at about 65 to
70 lbs. The bow and stern positions paddle, with the 'duffer' occupying the
center position. Positions rotate on a regular basis to give everybody a shot
at the duffer position. We will find later that the duffer can often help
paddle, particularly in headwind situations.
Moderate headwinds through morning, reach Prairie Portage about 11:30, right behind our other crew. This is the entry to Canada, and we have to do the customs thing, pay the camping fees, purchase the fishing licenses, etc. The Ranger lectures us on low impact camping, makes sure we know how to take care of the bathroom arrangements (dig at least a 6" hole at least 200 feet from the water), and warns us that problem bears have been reported in the Batchewong Bay area at the north end of our trek.
We paddle on. Relieved to see that Bayley Bay was well behaved, despite some wind. Bayley has a reputation of getting rough pretty quickly in windy conditions, and on my first trip 4 years ago, it had been dreadful. Ate lunch at an island in Burke Lake. Found a good supply of blueberry bushes. Berries are small--about the size of small peas--but are very sweet and tasty. Daniel in particular developed a taste for the berries.
At the North end of Burke Lake, before the portage into North Bay, we paddle through a shallow area--lots of reeds and almost swampy. We eventually come to call these areas 'little Vietnams'. We did a quiet paddle through this area to try to see some wildlife. We did see a couple of deer.
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