A little rain overnight but there was no precip when I got up at 7:30; though you wouldn'’t have guessed it from looking at the sky. From my position the wind appeared to be coming from the east, never good. Ate breakfast and thought real hard about what to do. Really didn’'t want to spend another day stuck in place but also knew if I traveled I couldn’'t expect any good camping for a long ways. It hadn’'t rained in 3 hours so I decided to go for it. Twenty minutes after setting out it started to mist/drizzle and didn’'t stop all day; some light rain was mixed in too.
20160902_408 by
Alan, on Flickr
I was worried about getting up the rapids exiting Spencer Lake but it turned out to be an easy job lining up the inside corner. It sure was nice to be gaining a little confidence and ability with this skill. I was able to sail a couple miles up Allnutt Lake which, even in a barely noticeable current, is a good feeling. The rapid exiting Allnutt Lake was a long affair that I managed to track, drag, wade, and trip my way up. By the time I got to the top I was soaked to the waist. There were a few more rapids that took a mix of lining, wading, and portaging to get up. Everything was slick from the rain and I narrowly avoided a couple bad falls, mostly due to luck.
It was a really miserable day, perhaps the worst I’'ve ever paddled in. My glasses were nearly always covered with mist which made it hard to see. I was already chilly even before getting soaked wading up the rapids and my feet were nearly numb all day. Stiff wind didn’'t help any. Bad day for Sadie too being stuck in the bow of the canoe. When we’d come to the rapids she’d have to get out and rock hop her way upstream while I worked the canoe. She took a couple good soakings when slipping off wet rocks. I was beginning to regret bringing her along. This wasn'’t her kind of trip and besides being unenjoyable for her it made travel harder on me too. On days like this I felt guilty to be traveling as I watched her shiver in the bow all day as she looked longingly at the shore wanting to get out and run. There were other days I would have been willing to subject myself to paddling in ugly weather but I wasn’'t willing to put her through it. But she was a trooper through it all. She always did what needed to be done and never once balked at jumping back in the canoe, which I expected to happen more and more each day.
I would have liked to quit earlier in the day but since I was already soaking wet I was determined to make it up Caribou Rapids and the small unnamed rapid above it. This would give us clear paddling the rest of the way to Charcoal Lake. By the time I portaged over Caribou Rapids it was 5:45 and of course I couldn'’t find anywhere to camp. Everything was either low and boggy or steep and rocky. At 7:00 we finally stopped on a tiny island that was straight out of the Canadian Shield; just a chunk of granite with a thin layer of moss and some trees hanging on by their toenails. But it had a nice landing which is more than I could say for anything else we’d paddled by. It didn’'t take long to walk over the whole island and it was not very tent friendly. I finally decided there was one spot that would work good enough. The ground sloped in two directions and there were lots of humps and bumps so the sides of the tent didn'’t always reach the ground but it was late, still drizzling, I was cold, and it would have to do. It would be interesting trying to sleep on that ground but at least it was somewhat protected from the east wind. As soon as I quit paddling I started to get quite cold and it felt great climb inside and put on dry clothes. Had no desire to cook so just sat in the tent and ate almonds, fruit, M&Ms and lemon drops.
At 9:00pm the weather was unchanged except the east wind seemed to be increasing. Despite what had been a pretty bad day I was in surprisingly good spirits. Better spirits than had I stayed in camp all day. It felt good to have worked hard and made some real progress. Except for the Bigstone portage this day put most of the hardest work behind us. Ninth straight day with rain.
A few sprinkles overnight and then a thunderstorm came through around 7:30am and rained pretty hard for a little over an hour. When I cooked breakfast at 9:30 the wind was still blowing hard from the NE but by 10:00 it was completely calm and peaceful. I hung my wet clothes on the line to hopefully get them damp instead of wet and immediately it began to rain. Decided if it cleared off by noon I’'d break camp and paddle to Charcoal Lake to find a better site, otherwise I'’d stay put. No desire for a repeat of yesterday.
The rain quit again late morning and things were starting to look up but soon afterwards that heavy mist/drizzle from yesterday settled in and by mid-afternoon it was raining again. Looked like we'’d be spending another night on our rock. Spent the afternoon in the tent and after some thunderstorms moved through the area late that afternoon the rain abruptly quit at 5:45 and the sun peaked out from behind the clouds for just a minute. I checked the wind and it had moved to the S/SW. The clouds were quickly breaking up and big patches of blue sky were starting to show. Jumped up to go outside and get things set out to dry. Hung the clothes up in the breeze and set some wet gear out on the rocks in the sun. In no more than 5 minutes I heard a rumble and turned around to see dark blue clouds rolling in that took away my beautiful sunshine. I spent the next 1 1/2 hours anxiously watching the sky and snatching clothes up when it started to rain and hanging them back on the line when it quit again. Some heavy rains skirted us just to the north and at 7:45 I gave up and packed everything back inside the tent. Just after that it began to rain in earnest and the wind became very strong. I was thankful my tent site was just below the ridge of the island which did a nice job of deflecting most of the south wind. This was the 10th consecutive day with rain and again, just as it looked like it might clear, the wind had switched 180 degrees and brought all the moisture back for another round.
Around 11:30 that night, as I was half asleep, I started to wonder why I could suddenly feel a breeze on my face. The strong south wind had been shaking the tent a bit and stirring the air but this was stronger. I wrote it off and figured it would go away; but it didn’'t. It took me a few moments to fully wake up and realize something had changed and that it probably wasn'’t good. I turned to look out the entrance of the tent and saw the awning puffed up and looking like a parachute. The wind had swung around to the west and increased in velocity; we were now completely exposed to it. It came whipping off the river, followed the steeply sloped hill we were on, and scooped up underneath the awning. The only good news is that 5 minutes ago it had been raining and now it was only a driving drizzle as I stumbled into the night in my thermal underwear and headlamp.
Once outside it took a minute to figure out just what was going on and what I needed to do to fix it. The wind was blowing directly into the opening of the shelter and puffing it up like a balloon. The air was then escaping under the edges of the walls. It was like trying to blow up a huge leaky balloon and it essentially turned the tent into a wind tunnel. Outside I found a dry bag that had been blown out from under one of the walls. Somehow I needed to get that awning pulled down all the way to shut off the opening. There was nothing to tie out to so I went looking for rocks. I found a few big ones and got them placed. It was a little tricky undoing the tie downs that were holding it all together and retying them in this wind, which I’d guess was blowing steady at 25mph (40kph) and gusting to 35-40 mph (56-64 kph). This was the strongest wind I’d ever been camping in and the first time during the trip I actually got a little nervous about what was going on. Just what exactly was I going to do if the shelter should rip, or even just get blown down?
I got the awning closed down as good as I could and then used a combination of more rocks and food barrels to weigh down other parts of the tent to try and keep everything held together. It was as good as I could do so I went back inside, chuckling at how ridiculous this whole thing was, and tried to sleep while the wind shook and snapped the tent. It started raining again just after midnight. The rain quit at 2:00am but the wind persisted. It was strange how the wind would suddenly die down to almost nothing and you could hear the waves crashing on the shore and the rain falling on the ground. Then you’'d hear a roar coming from up the river and it was like a freight train slammed into the tent as every other sound was obliterated. The tent held together through the night with no damage and I even managed to get a little sleep.
Very cold in the morning. Thought it might have froze but the water on the tent was still water. Wind was still blowing hard from the west. Neither Sadie or I were in any hurry to get out of bed but a little after 8:30 the sun started to shine off and on. Climbed out at 9:00 and was greeted by the sun ducking behind clouds and blowing drizzle, which soon blew away. Did some more work on the shelter tie downs, set clothes out to dry, and got water to cook breakfast. Didn’'t take long until my hands were cold to the point they didn'’t work well anymore. Skies began to clear around 10:00am. Was warming up nicely inside the shelter but still cold outside. Was anxious to see what the weather would do as I really wanted off this dang island.
By noon my clothes were all but dry and I started breaking camp. We shoved off at 1:00. The wind was still blowing hard and even though the river wasn'’t very wide here there were plenty of whitecaps. I was pretty apprehensive about paddling in this wind but it turned out to be not as bad as I thought. As I got away from the island the wind seemed to drop to a more respectable level and when I gained the opposite shore I was protected enough to have a relatively easy paddle. I think my island was in a bad location and that the way the wind was channeled down the river and around the landforms had increased its velocity in that small area. As soon as we hit Charcoal Lake we stopped at the first esker would could find to get Sadie some walking, which she certainly deserved after the last few days. This was the 11th day with rain.
Tent before the wind started. Note the use of rock flaps (great addition) and the wrinkles caused by the less than ideal setup location:
20160903_410 by
Alan, on Flickr
Awning closed down as good as I could get it. My mom added the center tie out on the awning. It was coming in very handy in this picture:
20160904_412 by
Alan, on Flickr
Rocks and food barrel helping hold things in place. Note the lack of wrinkles in the tent. Despite the awning being nearly completely closed off the wind is still getting into the shelter and blowing it up like a balloon:
20160904_413 by
Alan, on Flickr
Alan
