Day 3, Saturday, 17 June

Peter made the fire and coffee.  We had instant oatmeal for breakfast.  It was wolfed down, but we still weren’t on the water until 9.30 am.  One km brought us around the point into the head wind for the remaining 2 km to portage 5

  Portage Number 5: Connecting Little Crooked Lake with Rachkewich Lake, 491 metres long and in good condition.

We were still paddling northerly, into the wind, on Rachkewich Lake, for 4 km to portage 6.

  Portage Number 6: There were alternative portages here, but the guide was out of date.  The     general consensus was that we would look at the shorter ‘man-made channel’ portage and then decide not to take it (we had been burned by this portage route in 1993).  This is exactly what we did.  After about 350 metres, the portage trail, which was in excellent condition, forked. We dumped our loads and followed a narrow and steep trail which led to the 'man made channel'. The water proved to be so high in the channel that the channel had ceased to exist, and we looked out on a large pond/small lake with small trees and shrubs poking up out of the water.  The outlet of the pond could be found by listening to the water cascading over a beaver dam, about 50 metres away, hidden from view.  We had no canoes with us, and we were not going to wade out and see what the channel looked like.  So, back we went to the fork in the trail and continued on with the portage.  The trail turned out to be much shorter than the 1200 metres described in the guide and ended in a reed patch, looking out on a small lake very similar to the one we had bypassed.  

The beaver pond

We put in and paled along a channel through the reeds, and came to a large beaver dam, several tens of feet long and about 5 feet high.

A remarkable engineering feat by the beaver! 

We had to traverse two more smaller dams until the reed channel finally exited into Trout Lake.

We were now in the Churchill River system. The wind had become more light and variable, but had shifted 180 degrees and was now generally from the south.  It also seemed to be increasing in strength, so we decided to try sailing down Trout Lake.  Two trees were cut for masts, two more for cross braces, and the Mad River trimaran was launched. 

The Mad River Explorer Trimaran I

Unfortunately, the wind which had howled during construction of the trimaran, dropped during the afternoon, and the sailing was only moderately successful.

Sometimes the wind cooperated, and paddling was leisurely

  We passed the exit of the Paull River from McIntosh Lake (see the report of our 1996 trip).

  There are three sets of rapids between Trout Lake and Stack Lake

  Portage Number 7: Connecting Trout Lake with quiet waters below the first rapid, 145 metres long and in good condition but rocky and steep in spots.  This portage bypasses a class 4 rapid.

We scouted the first rapid and decided not to run it.  It was too difficult a rapid to be the first one of the year, and we weren’t ready for it.  Brent and Warren suspected that there was a nice route down river left, but even that should only have been run by a lightly loaded canoe or a single paddler.  We portaged and found a nice campsite at the lower end of the rapid.  The black flies descended upon us again:  we were prepared, and pulled out the bug hats.  After a little bit of fishing, Warren went on to prepare dinner, a home-dehydrated putanesca pasta sauce and “orzo” noodles (great for canoeing because they pack up small and cook fast).  This meal was supplemented by two jack fish (northern pike) caught by Mike and filleted on Warren’s paddle by Peter and Mike.  Glenfiddich for libation.  The non-drinkers had to console themselves with chocolate chip fudge cookies, which the drinkers also partook of.

Dinner in Camp at Trout Portage

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