Back the way we came...
Today we woke up to an overcast sky. It was windy enough that my anxiety was kicking in about the paddle ahead. We ate breakfast, got packed up, and headed out back to the entry point in Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake.
The small island, just a few strokes from out campsite, had a few bushes with wild blueberries on them. So we stopped and ate a few. It was a good start to the day. We didn't see anyone as we headed out of the lake. The campsite that looked like it was pretty much right by the water was empty, so they must have headed out quite early.
Paddling in Green and Rocky lakes was tough but they were so narrow that the wind couldn't really get a good grip on the lake and whip up those white caps. We still didn't really find the campsite on Green Lake even though we carefully scanned the map and shore as we paddled past. I guess if we really wanted to camp there, a closer look at the shore would be needed.
As we walked to the end of the portage from Rocky to Oyster, the sky was still overcast. The lake looked like there were some white caps on it and as I sat waiting for the group to come back from the second portage, two things happened. A chipmunk shot out of the hole in the tree underneath me as I was sitting over it and about scared the daylights out of me. I laughed out loud as I thought about how scared that little guy must have been. The other thing that happened was another canoe came into view to my right along the shore line. I wasn't sure where they had been because the lake route would have brought them from the left. BUT the wind was pretty strong so I assumed they got pushed across the lake as they were making their way over here.
We got our canoes packed and chatted with the couple for a bit. They had taken over an hour to get across the lake and we were amazed at the stamina at the very least. So needless to say - I was not liking what the next bit of the day was going to bring.
We decided to paddle to a sheltered spot on the lake and stop to get a snack before the paddle. R got out the nut sack, gorp, granola bars, and we each threw them around until we had our fill. Then after getting lifejackets on and securing our hats, we took off. It was a b*tch. That was by far the hardest paddle we had done on the trip. We had to paddle along a peninsula dividing the lake and we were getting pushed in the shore pretty hard by a good headwind.
One thing that makes paddling so hard at these times, is that you always end up knocking you thumb HARD on the boat. At least I do. So not only are your muscles screaming but your hand is throbbing from hitting the gunnel.
As we rounded the corner of the peninsula - I let out a blue streak and then looked out across the big part of the lake and felt much better. We weren't going to be paddling into a headwind so we just needed to paddle hard across the waves. (Which is actually more dangerous because there is a better chance of being dumped by a wave pushing you over.)
We sited our portage and started across. R and D were quite a bit ahead of us and so I dug in trying to hit the tops of the waves so I could get a good stroke *in* the water. We did pretty well across this lake. We had to do a little bit of back tracking and cross the waves but after a little struggle - we found it and prevented the canoe from getting tossed into the rocks at the portage. I once again thanked the gods for my boots and jumped in the water to get us safely onto land before R & D got there and needed to land.
This portage was the beautiful one a few days before but now I was so drained from the paddle that I didn't remember to look at it as I walked through. The difference of wind and no sun didn't help either.
Earlier in the trip, we had decided to look for the portage into Lake Agnes from the river out of Oyster. We found it pretty easily today. The sun was starting to come out and we paddled into the portage and it looked much different from the other portages we had been to. It was really grassy and muddy. We did see tracks that looked like moose and maybe coyote poop so that was exciting. Its the little things right?!
The portage was interesting too. It was up, up, up and crossed about 6 little streams along the way that were flowing across the path. I wondered if it was many little streams or the same one crossing back and forth down the hill. It was a pretty hot walk because the sun was now back out and the breeze was not touching us as we hiked through the forest.
We were finally all at the other end and started to talk about finding a campsite on Lake Agnes. We looked at the map and saw one just to the north of the portage and then three to the south on this side of the lake. We got back in the canoes and as we came out of the bay towards the campsite, we saw another canoe coming towards us and we thought we better hightail it to the campsite. As we got closer though we decided to ditch this site as it looked pretty exposed without a very good view.
We rounded the corner on the next campsite and found that it was occupied. The next option was all the way in the bay and the last site was further down the lake outside the bay. As we got to the site in the bay, we still didn't see the other canoe so D did a quick check and I got out for a second opinion. It wasn't great. Very terraced with maybe one good tent site and a few not so good sites for the other tent. It was also pretty narrow and exposed without a good spot to get into the lake for a dip. So R & D decided to take off for the next site and MD and I would stay here and keep this site in case the other canoe got there first. So MD and I stayed there for about 5 minutes, burning in the sun, and decided to take off anyway.
When we got to the other campsite - R&D had decided that we should take it so we were glad we hadn't stayed any longer at the other site. The lake was pretty yacky all around, I discovered. The rock sloping down into the water was very slimy and made getting out of the canoe difficult at the landing. So swimming was definitely out for me and I was looking forward to getting into shorts and relaxing in the shade.
More on Day 5 in my next post.
