Day 5
Thursday 08/22
Sharon:
Early
in the morning sunrise Rick enjoys the peacefulness and takes a picture of Rock
Trout rapids. An Eagle flew to a
nearby treetop across the river and Warren lent us his binoculars for a closer
look.
Peter: The next morning, Brent and Rick ran Rock Trout in Brent's canoe, carefully hugging the right bank, following Warren's line.
They made the upper part but took on water.
And sank.
Brent crawled out on the bank and was rescued by Warren while Rick landed and baled.
Rick then ran with Brent in Rick's canoe.
Rick entered the first rapid on the left, eddied out, baled, crossed the current to the right side and went through the second set in the middle OK and made it through taking on very little water.
The calm after the storm
Click here for a larger map
Rock Trout was P13, and 500 metres below that there was another set of rapids, which we ran. At the outlet of Mountney Lake there were several minor rapids, followed by Chief Rapids (P14), a class 2 (a strong Class 2 according to Canoeing on the Churchill), leading to waters connecting to Nipew Lake. We ran it without incident.
We canoed across Mountney Lake southeast through a windy channel to a huge lake called Nipew Lake.
Nipew means 'dead' in Cree. It used to be called Dead Lake on early Saskatchewan maps, and the voyageurs called it Lac des Morts. The name came from the smallpox epidemic of 1780 to 1782, described in more detail in Canoeing the Churchill.
We had a long way to go on Nipew Lake, and the wind was now behind us, so at 1.30 pm we stopped to construct a 'quadmarin'.
Here
the guys wanted to make a sail and tie all the canoes together with tree poles
using a tarp for a sail. So we
paddled to a small island that supplied the poles they needed.
Mike found the island on the map. As
for myself, I could read the map and the land by this time.
Here the guys were very busy sizing the trees and cutting them down after
deciding that they were the ones. The
branches were sawed off, aligning the canoes by size, digging for ropes and a
tarp for a sail. Rick admiring
their knowledge and working together as a group, to say one thing but to do it
and to make it work is another. A
lot going on, “in the middle of nowhere,” as Dawnna would say and before our
eyes the sail was put together. With
so much excitement from all of us, Peter did a jig in his canoe for he was so
sure of its sturdiness. We laughed
at the characteristic movements of Peter’s dance; it was the perfect Norman
Rockwell moment.
With little breeze we had moved at a nice pace across Nipew Lake. Once we became accustomed to our sail duty, we were very relaxed. As we sailed we could talk to each other, have lunch, fish, read a book or our map and I even had time for a quick nap. Along this long lake the sail worked beautifully with no problems whatsoever.
It was a relaxed sail
Using a paddle as a daggerboard
While the stern paddlers kept us on course -
- the crew relaxed.
We sailed east and northeast across Nipew to the narrows leading to Hayman Lake. Crossing Hayman Lake we trolled a line and caught two Jack fish.
Click here for a larger map
Following misadventures on previous trips, we carefully followed the correct easterly outlet from Burgess Bay on Hayman Lake.
Towards the end along a channel passing rapids to our right and small rolling ones ahead. Warren has the idea to stand up while sailing into the small rolling rapid. With a little edging on Dawnna, all of us stood up. Giving us some humor after a long sail across the lake. It was not long after that we were pulling into land to dismantle the sail.
There is fast water in the narrows, leading to a class 1+ rapid. We sailed this rapid standing up in the quadmarin!
Canoeing across Hayman Lake to camp at a point south of Burgess Bay.
Again the guys ran about with their hats and threw them down to mark
their spot for their tent. This was
a beautiful place to camp, tall evergreens with mossy undergrowth, rock shores
and a view of the calm Burgess Bay with dotting islands.
Small spotted leave plants also grew under the trees, looked more of a
tropical plant, one I’ve never seen before.
Only a memory, for I ran out of film before Nipew Lake.
After the tents were set up in their places, some of the group went
fishing for Walleye. As the sun set
I went for a cold swim with darkness falling quickly upon the lake.
I started to worry about undercurrents so I stayed close to the rocky
shore. The guys came back with a good catch of Walleye for
breakfast. Dawnna and Brent made
Taco’s for supper our last night of camping.
With the guys having such luck catching Walleye, Dawnna really wanted to
try her hand at catching fish early the next morning.
With the campfire and darkness falling over the Bay, everything was
great. Although there wasn’t much
paddling, mostly sailing. I felt very tired and quickly fell asleep.
We camped at a well known site at the top of Donaldson Channel, arriving at 7 pm. and dismantled the 'quadmarin'.
