Just south of the bridge over the Geike we found a set of houses for highway workers. We found a couple at home and asked if we could leave the Bronco there. They were very nice and quite curious about our trip. They said no problem. We told them we would be there Friday at noon to pick the car up.
Back we drove to the Johnson. We left the K-car at a fishing camp right at the bridge over the Johnson. The owner told me to leave the keys under the seat in case a forest fire come through and he had to move it.
Finally we were ready to start the trip. Before we started paddling we tied everything into our canoes. We don't use spray skirts and the waterproof packs act as floatation if they are carefully tied in. Warren had slotted wooden gunnels and simply ran ropes back and forth through the slots. I drilled holes in the gunnels on my canoe and did the same thing. Rick has plastic gunnels and had to glue in plastic d-rings; they seem to work okay.
We put the canoes into the water a ways up from the bridge to avoid the stronger current in the narrowing of the river near the bridge. There was almost no current and, as we paddled upstream, the river quickly turned into Pardoe Lake.
The lake cuts through quite a few glacial eskers, which are basically sand ridges. At these points the lake would narrow and get shallow. At one point we were paddling through only a few inches of water; just enough to keep the canoe a float. I was getting bored so I got out and pushed the canoe. I was able to run at almost full speed so Mike had quite a ride. The picture below was taken just as I was getting back in the canoe.
We had lunch on a sandy beach. It was a sunny day and hot for northern Saskatchewan so we all took a swim. The water, however was not hot; it was only between 5-10 C. In the shallows, the sun had heated up the sand under the water. I sat in cold water but on warm sand; it was a wierd feeling. Warren took his canoe out empty and was going to show us how he could roll it. He strapped himself in using his thigh straps and tipped the canoe over. When he tried to roll it back up, one thigh strap ripped out. That was the end of that demonstration.
At end of the lake was a waterfall; portaging it was the first order of business for the next day. We camped on a penisula about 2 km from the waterfall; we had covered about 20 km that day. The penisula was narrow and sandy so we set up our tents on what was basically a beach. Below you can see the beach and Mike dutyfully writing down the events of the day.
After setting up camp we went fishing for lake trout. The owner of the fishing lodge had showed us a good fishing spot not far from our camp site. Warren caught a 5 lb lake trout fairly quickly. I brought it into my canoe and tried to kill it. Damn that lake trout was tough. All I had to hit it with was my paddle so I started pounding on the back of its head. I must have hit it 50 times before I killed it. Of course I missed it about 10 times and hit the bottom of my aluminum canoe. Needless to say I was making a hell of a racket. Funny thing was no one else caught a fish after that. Below you can see me whacking the fish with the end of my paddle and Mike looking on in disgust.
Tim and Rick stayed out fishing longer than anyone else. From the campsite we could hear them talking even though they were almost a km away. Rick talked loud because he was going deaf, but not that loud; something was causing the sound to carry across the water.
It was Tim's turn to cook supper and he made boiled garlic sausage and noodles. We also ate the lake trout, fried in butter of course. We couldn't finish the fish so we ate rest for breakfast the next morning.
Just before it got dark it got windy, which is a problem for my tent because it really wasn't made for wilderness travel. It was high enough for a person to stand up in, but wind could get under the fly. I put my canoe in front of the tent and tied the fly to the canoe. It looked wierd, but it kept the fly from tearing off.
Around dusk, the smoke started to settle in. The sunset was spectacular.
