I have not done a lot of trips with portages, and don't remember seeing any weird sites on portages. The only odd thing I saw was a footbridge and that was only odd because it was my second time across, and I knew there was no footbridge on the portage trail. With my canoe on my shoulders I was walking head down watching the path, and I took a wrong fork in the trail without knowing it. AKA, lost. Was that a rookie mistake or is finding yourself on the wrong trail commonplace?
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Odd, funny, scary or beautiful things seen on a portage
- Thread starter Glenn MacGrady
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It is pretty hard to see with your head inside of a canoe and I've been known to take a wrong trail or two (with and without a canoe overhead). By far the worst (so far) was when I mistakenly followed a game trail to a snowmobile trail and proceeded to carry a canoe around the woods for well over 2 hrs. Could be a rookie thing as it was my first BWCA trip (Post #5 here if you want a chuckle).
Thankfully, the portages got easier after that.
(haven't found anything unusual yet, just lots of cached boats, a few pieces of lost / discarded gear, animal bones & lots of scat... I'll keep looking)
and that's why I double most portages- by taking just the packs you can see any side trails or obstacles and remedy them before bringing the canoe across, I've cut dozens of trees that have fallen across the portage before having to navigate them with a canoe
We made an unusual and kind of scary find on a multi day trip down the Green River south of Pinedale, Wyoming. It wasn’t on a portage trail, but in the river. Our group of about six canoes- mostly 8-15 year old kids had just passed under the LaBarge road bridge when someone shouted that they saw something strange on the bottom. My buddy paddled back up returned with a black attaché case which had obviously been in the water a long time, given the vegetation growing on it and the rust on the latches. It was locked and speculation ran rampant all afternoon as to its contents - money?, drugs? a gun? After dinner we cut it open and found drug paraphernalia and sales records but no money. The most likely explanation was that a drug dealer threw it out of a truck window while crossing the bridge and eluding the police. We turned it in to the local police station on the way home and they recognized the names, and knew who the dealer was. Not what you expect to find in 1994 on a peaceful river in rural Wyoming!
On a BWCA portage one year with my canoe on my shoulders I came face to face with a mother moose and her calf. We both stopped and looked at each other, I moved to one side and she moved to the other side and walked past me. I'm guessing having the canoe up helped me look larger than I actually was and she decided just to pass by.
What month was it? They are much more sensitive when the calfs are little in May and June. By the end of the summer they're not so defensive, but don't take my word for it.
It was the end of May, I'm pretty sure it was the aluminum tank I was carrying that helped!
nah, she was just startled to see Mr Canoehead was still around...
Scariest:
On a port in Algonquin somewhere between NorthTea and the Nipissing, we found a fresh flowing spring. It was hot and I decided to take a nice long drink by kneeling down and slurping it straight from a small pool. It was delicious and cold. When I was finished, I tilted my head towards where the water was coming from and noticed something long and white floating in its current only about a foot away. I looked closer and pulled it out of the water and it wriggled and was segmented, about 6” long. Oh crap! I sold myself that it was some kind of parasitic worm, probably from some other animals arse and it was looking for a new home. It could have been harmless, idk.
I lived in paranoia for quite some time afterwards that I had some kind of intestinal invader and after that experience I’ll take close call with a bear or moose any day over a face to face with a parasite worm.
Haven’t drank from a spring since.
On a port in Algonquin somewhere between NorthTea and the Nipissing, we found a fresh flowing spring. It was hot and I decided to take a nice long drink by kneeling down and slurping it straight from a small pool. It was delicious and cold. When I was finished, I tilted my head towards where the water was coming from and noticed something long and white floating in its current only about a foot away. I looked closer and pulled it out of the water and it wriggled and was segmented, about 6” long. Oh crap! I sold myself that it was some kind of parasitic worm, probably from some other animals arse and it was looking for a new home. It could have been harmless, idk.
I lived in paranoia for quite some time afterwards that I had some kind of intestinal invader and after that experience I’ll take close call with a bear or moose any day over a face to face with a parasite worm.
Haven’t drank from a spring since.
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