6-Day 100km Solo Ice-Out Trip

first canoe trip of the year I'm on a huge northern lake which I seem to have to myself not even the bugs are here yet it's late May and the ice ran out less than a week ago after knee surgery portages are off the table for a bet but there's 142 kilometers of Shoreline the paddle on this Lake alone plus several intriguing inflows and connecting lakes that I might be able to get into first pass honey Pike thank you [Applause] [Music] foreign campsite it was looking pretty bleak paddled 15 kilometers of Shoreline this was by far the best yeah wow I have a look at this campsite can't believe it beaver's been active not sure what that weird waxy stuff is on that stump check out this View this is insane on my map it's called camping point just a regular old topo map so stood to reason that it would be pretty decent but this is exceptional pretty much a perfect first day this campsite is phenomenal and no bugs yet that is a huge relief the buds are coming out on the trees and usually that's when the black flies come out so pushing it but supposed to get pretty cold tomorrow uh tomorrow night supposed to be below freezing and maybe the following night too so that might keep them at Bay I'll give you a look at the map show you what he got planned for this route so this is McKay Lake it's got 142 kilometers of Shoreline it's got lake trout walleye Pike also Whitefish burbot perch three almost three years ago I blew past it and went down the pick River 200 kilometers South this time I plan to explore this Lake properly it's gem came today across the North Shore past the deepest Basin 180 feet there and over to here camping point was labeled on this old survey map the Symmetry map so this has been a campsite for quite a while and that's where I'm set up probably for tomorrow night too it's a good launch pad for me to get up into here and to explore some other Creeks that come in see how far I can get up them question marks there and down here at the Pelt River I want to explore all these inflows and see where I can get cheese and potato pierogies become one of my go-to camping meals for night one and did them with jalapeno and onion tonight hmm really like the Jalapeno in there it's almost like nachos [Music] [Music] it's gray morning and it might turn nasty this afternoon before dropping the minus two overnight so get what exploring in I can this morning hopefully and non tons of birds keeping me company should be a good day leaving camp hopefully get some decent weather today I'm heading from here into this Bay explore these two creeks and come back crazy today but even that could be 20 kilometers depending on how far I get coming up to the first Creek this is the smallest one of all the options rain's holding off pretty uneventful paddle so far bald eagle lots of waterfowl it was a short Clear Channel into Willy Lake and there's not much to see here small lake so I'll probably continue on just couldn't resist at least poking my nose in otters taking a couple of casts here at the mouth of the second Creek and it's just starting to rain there's a little Log Jam here could get around it probably have to get my feet wet that's good enough nice little paddle on this Creek beautiful actually and I've got a pretty good paddle for today several hours worked my way back to camp temperature is going to drop all afternoon and then get very cold overnight so it'd be nice just to be warm and cozy at camp [Music] it's a huge Eagles Nest up there the eagle is just a couple trees behind it [Music] all right [Music] almost home foreign [Applause] that I might get in that paddle before the rain and it seems like I got back just as it ended so I'm I was soaked but now I'm dry got a good book cheese and extremely comfy hammock and sleeping bag Life's good [Applause] [Applause] Sun's breaking through it's north wind blew out the rain also making it quite cold but staying warm and just enjoying that pretty unexciting day but that was a part of the lake that I thought would be the least interesting and that was true so got it out of the way Lots left to see tomorrow I'm going up that way North and that could take me into some other Lakes if the Creeks are navigable but I don't know on satellite it looks like there's at least one rapid so we'll see how far I get and then there's still Lots left that way to the South and it's funny to think that right now I'm doing an easy trip no portages and last year this time I was doing the Pakistan River and Coast with Xander which was which is a pretty difficult route All Things Considered and yeah torment meniscus still recovering from surgery so playing it safe for now and we'll get back to those things before too long but the time being Fort Dodge free trips and a lot of upside to that portologists aren't exactly fun I mean most of us dread them so this isn't too bad at all finished one great book on to the next it's not quite nine o'clock but I'm gonna wake up for some good stargazing tonight so I'm gonna get a little shut eye [Music] [Music] [Music] crisp Sunny morning black bean burgers and glucosamine that's a good way to start a day really excited to go up that way and had a great night of stargazing Northern Lights came out a bit it's been a great campsite and I'm probably gonna stay here one more night just because I've paddled around a large portion of this Lake now and this is by far the best spot in fact there's only one other spot I saw that could be a viable campsite and not just like a absolute Bush scramble water access is really rough so I'm gonna enjoy this one more night almost ready to head out for the day yesterday left from camp and headed into Northeast Bay this way up sand link Creek today North into Yankee Bay and then there's Norse Creek which connects these Lakes I'm hoping I can get into at least little McKay Lake and then I'm pretty sure there's a rapid right in the middle of Norris Creek there that'll block me from getting into Hollow Rock and Seagram but we'll see [Applause] that's the most of the creek a few casts here gotta follow to the boat and just saw a small Pike so I'm gonna move on it's already 1pm I was up from one to two star gazing and then had trouble falling asleep so I ended up sleeping until nine and it was cold and windy so I waited it out so I got a lot to do but thankfully it's light till about 10 P.M hello coming into little McKay Lake now the creek was unobstructed which is really nice gives me plenty to do in this Lake alone this Lake looks amazing I slightly regretting not packing up camp and coming here because this looks stunning yeah there's a absolutely Prime campsite here great water access Rock Jack Pine lots of places to hang a hammock not the best for tents but oh that hurts a little that's so nice but I got a great campsite I didn't have to pack up I don't have to set up but I hope I can have a Shore lunch here later I have to come back this way on the satellite Scout that I did at home it looked like there might have been a long Swift up that Creek which is why I didn't want to pack up to potentially just have to stop there and go back to the same campsite and I'm not doing portages or waiting up rapids or anything like that until my knee has more time to recover so that's why the Swift would have been more of a big deal than normal coming back on to Norse Creek heads into a couple other Lakes this way but on satellite I'm pretty sure I saw a rapid that's gonna stop me first canoe trip in over half year just because winter first Backcountry camping trip for a really proper camping trip at all in three months because the injury and my favorite week of the whole year May long weekend Northern Ontario Canada I live for this week and the fact that I've recovered just in time to get out I have a day like this in a place like this quiet as anything heaven can paddling up the creek for a while and then I looked at my topo map where I thought the rapid was I'd blown way past it so I did see some rocks there and like the smallest of Swifts so it looks like I can get into these next Lakes which is somewhat disappointing because now I really wish I had packed up my camp but that's okay I'm just gonna go in and it's gonna be a long day and be on the water all day can't believe it but I actually threw to Seagram Lake I'm sure there's gonna be some obstruction I wasn't expecting to make it here so I'm pulling out the Symmetry study for Seagram I'll show you it's very shallow so we came in there and it says right there less than one meter is the sounding for all this area less than or equal to one meter and then down here there's a two meter basin so very shallow Lake pretty sizable though this one was surveyed in June 21st to June 22nd 1978 so with that depth I wouldn't expect a lot for fishing but there are a couple of loons here fishing their hearts out this Lake connects with Hollow Rock Lake at the North End I'm gonna go to that juncture and go from there black bear up there I'm downwind don't think he's noticed me yeah there it goes foreign Lake looks beautiful from here but I don't know if I'll go further because this wind is really picking up and at that end they'll be really I'll have to battle it to get back Hollow Rock is right over here but I don't think I can actually get through so if this is the end of the road it's been pretty sweet found a little connection into Hollow Rock just got to be on the lookout for a bear pretty much in the middle of Hollow Rock Lake and I'm going to call this the end of the road got plenty of distance to cover to get back to camp and if I turn around now I should still have my time for a short lunch on little McKay unbelievable now a moose right over there just on the other side of where I saw the bear I'm almost back to Seagram Lake back to little McKay the creek flows into it I'm looking for a now dinner fish it's just after five but I still have time to do it started trolling up the lake got something on not much fight oh a nice walleye either walleye perfect oh man that is the fish to get right now Rebels hook comes right out dispatch it right away and then I'll show you walleye gold keep that in the net for now I'm gonna go to that campsite cook this up oh [Music] this campsite's just amazing this jackpine fell down here and it actually looks kind of ugly so start burning it up [Applause] smells so good all right this brand new beautiful white water paddle it's getting christened as a cutting board oh this knife needs a sharpening oh well wasn't all that meaty but cheeks pectoral fins and the fillets which I cut into halves just easier to flip in the pan Hola some Ramen tea perfect end to a perfect day [Applause] so here's where it would be camping tonight really amazing I have a great site I'd give it a seven seven and a half this is a nine on the plus side instead of sitting around at camp this evening I'll have a nice Sunset panel foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] thank you thank you what a day yesterday today's off to a good start a little bits of fat wood off of that Jack Pine at the shore lunch campsite it's full of it resinous wood there are a couple of loons just in front of Camp by the canoe and a cute little brown bird it's kind of backlit so I can't quite tell what it might be foreign it was another Frosty night around freezing which means I sleep with the filter keep it warm if this freezes then the fibers in there will get ruined and those filters are pretty expensive so don't want that I'll show you where I'm going today totally different part of the lake moving camp so it came in this way in day one from wave over here covered this on day two went way up here in day three today day four a move camp and I'm heading somewhere down in the Southeast Bay and then there's the poet River down here which I'm very interested in and that goes all the way to pout Lake but I don't think I'll be able to make it I'm pretty sure there is some obstruction around there but hopefully some nice paddling in there packing up camp it's been a great one and it's even got some chaga that we use for tea at home it's one of the most antioxidant rich things on earth but we have plenty at home already so I'll leave that almost across the bay and then I'll follow the shore along to the southeast Bay another beautiful day chilly but let's warming up in the next few days are supposed to be very hot so I'm gonna enjoy this find out with this Bay and the poet River are all about okay I'm through there there was a bit of a headwind so that's nice to be done and heading into Outlet Bay very long bay called that because it drains out into the pick River 200 kilometers down to Lake Superior and I'm thinking I'll go down the pout today tomorrow is supposed to be very windy might be nice to be tucked away in the river if I can find a place to Camp there and do it I knew there'd be the calf with all the grunting just calling to it there it is it's so cute okay oh it's so cute give them lots of ram I don't want to freak her out don't leave your mom oh what are you doing I'm far away is the calf doesn't like the looks of that Shoreline it's going to keep going it's going across why would you do that actually if I go this way there you go there you go there they go reunited I'm leaving I'm leaving mom sounds so annoyed cough just doesn't want to go I've seen this before the calf just the cow has huge legs look at it this is bulldozing over the shoreline and the little calf has trouble getting through oh that's amazing so lovely Outlet Bay gets really shallow ahead and I'm hopeful that that means a lot more Wildlife like yesterday you cross the Bay now out river is right in front of me mouth and see if I can find a good spot to camp in there foreign decent spot here pretty good water access and a little opening that's the best I've seen everything else is pretty rough come back here if I need it pretty nasty headwind so here's where the River Narrows and I think in a kilometer or so I'm gonna hit an obstacle at least it looked like it on satellite and I'll turn back there if so it's interesting this Spruce here has some yellow tipped bows in the top of the trees yellow and it's probably just unhealthy maybe it's getting too much water here at the side of the river but I read a book last year called the Golden Spruce about a rare kind of spruce that turns or the needles are golden yellow come to imagine [Applause] tricky vulture I think [Applause] and an impasse [Applause] kind of glad to hit some sort of impasse to be honest it's not nicest camping here it's tons of Alder and yeah it's gonna be fun to ride the current and wind back down [Applause] a bit of weight to whatever this is probably a decent Pike can't quite see it oh yeah not bad oh shoot that's all right maybe a five or six pound Pike nothing too special sweet spot here let me pull up my chair mode yeah I couldn't turn this down I've got that Pike hit just over there and I was looking around and remember this huge Rock Hill right behind me can't really see it right now but I'll try and check it out later and it was just unique love this moss and old Spruce Forest this is home [Applause] foreign [Applause] spot it's like flat flat flat marshy and then this massive Baron Rock Hill out of nowhere you can see how little soil there is that tree toppled over and it's like just this layer of soil and root that they cling onto I'm Camp down there yep what an interesting spot back to Camp I'm glad I found this one otherwise it would have carried on back to that other one on the poet River and it was functional but there wasn't much charm to it would have been dark no view of sunset or Sunrise I like to have at least one sunset's shaping up nicely here there's another great day with the cow and calf moose a cozy sight here on the river just like I hoped and tomorrow and the rest of the trip as I head back West it looks like I'm gonna have Wicked headwinds according to my satcom forecast we'll see 5. got a big breakfast going had a great night in the hammock under the spruce and the Moonlight Stars and it's another chilly one but it should be the last cool temperatures of this trip and maybe of the summer anything near freezing anyway supposed to be really hot in the next three days [Applause] the site has all the makings of a buggy site and there are a few mosquitoes around no big deal it's just ominous I know they're about to explode and I just found the first black fly crawling around so they are coming [Applause] otters it looks like one last cast here before I continue down the pout this is where I got that Pike bite yesterday but those otters probably pushed out the fish here but another great start to the wildlife need to wait similar to The Pike yesterday yeah it's a pretty good pipe looks already out in the net it's a pretty nice Pike thank you too big for keeping it's one to release for sure thank you it's a bittern I believe that's the Merlin app you can download these bird calls offline and listen to the bird call and it'll identify it for you it's been really helpful for bird ID it's hard to get a clear picture of a bird from afar so the sound and the calls are actually a lot better so yeah American bitter very unique call keeping a call back not interested it's been nice having their portages on this trip get to bring things for the full day like the water reservoir a couple of extra burritos from breakfast there's way too much ate one already in the canoe I'll have the other one now and I'm almost back to McKay Lake yeah we'll see how far I got see how windy it is hey walleye thank you yeah I'll let this one go thank you back to McKay Lake and the wind isn't too bad yet it's building and I can either continue down to the very end of Outlook Bay but if I do that it'll be a nice ride with the wind but I'll have to battle extra hard probably three times as hard to get those kilometers back either later today or tomorrow and tomorrow the wind looks even worse it looks bad overnight so a night paddle looks like it won't even help sometimes that can be a way to get around the wind so I'm going to start retreating back West and there's a nice looking area here with some islands I'm hoping that's going to work out for a campsite tonight foreign Rock faces I'm always looking for pictographs and this is not a pictograph it's just like a splotch but it's a distinct hippo it's a hippo that's howling at the moon it's a Southwest wind so I'm hugging the South Shore to keep it a glancing blow and finding these little coves we had a break in it's not bad at all coming up to these islands hopefully I'll find somewhere to Camp here wind has actually decreased I think maybe it was just the worst at the end of the Bay foreign so one of these small islands has a very well established big campsite there are two kinds of junked up campsites one is beer cans everywhere garbage fecal matter and that's the worst kind but this isn't my favorite either it's not permanent installations in these big tables yeah not my style nice old stove here at least someone's tried to make it orderly so this isn't too bad but I think I'll keep going try and put something a little more cozy thank you wind's starting to pick up now [Applause] small Islands in established campsite too evidently but lots of installations as well and in high winds and shallow soil it's not the best for hammocks bring a tree down on myself so I'm gonna keep going I really prefer a site like last night it's just pure so here's my idea of a campsite this gnarly tangle looks perfect to me beautiful Rock and water an old spruce and half of you were thinking you left those good campsites for this and the other half of you might agree with me right here perfect yeah I'm thrilled that I moved on I love this spot some little Cliffs over there great water access Sunrise View and just that Ancient Forest feeling so I'm thinking about jumping in the water I would regret it though I know it it's gonna be so cold if I do ice only went out 10 days ago so oh my goodness wow that's paralyzingly cold invigorating though [Applause] dehydrating some Mexican quinoa tonight couple of loons hanging out right in front of Camp another amazing day started off with otters solid Pike beautiful weather wind wasn't that bad tons more birds and this amazing campsite this is actually my favorite of the trip if you can believe that and I think tomorrow will probably be the last day unless the wind really pins me down or I just can't leave it is tempting to just chill out here for another day but not really that good at sitting still so probably make my way back well I know I said I'm not good at sitting around but I'm pretty sure I could enjoy this book here tomorrow and have a really good day still no bugs such a brief period of the year that I look forward to every year so maybe I will stick around I don't know real something right now be hard to leave just getting my camping Zone too no it was coming on day three the perfect day with the bear and the moose and walleye fish fry but after five days you just relax and yeah maybe tomorrow is the perfect thing just to soak up that that moment and relax and let time slow down and if it is a final night I'll ask you to raise your glass of cheap scotch in a toast to Camping Zen the camping Zen foreign [Music] [Music] [Music] [Music] foreign [Music] foreign [Music] another beautiful night under the stars without the tarp the wind gusted a bit in the night but nothing too bad however it was creaking these big Jack Pine and Spruce above me and that kept me up a little bit and at 3 30 I woke up and took a few pictures of the stars and then couldn't get back to sleep so I ended up staying up for first light at 4am to Sunrise around 6 A.M and that was beautiful went back to bed for a couple hours and at 9am I was woken by a buzzing not mosquitoes or black flies there are only a few mosquitoes still but a motorboat it was the first one I've seen since day one which was the end of a long weekend and today I'm back to the weekend so I guess that'll increase the traffic but still it's otherwise dead quiet aside from one boat the first day one boat today so that's certainly not bad for a trip with no portages and earlier in the trip I've mentioned that this time last year Xander and I were doing the Pakistan River rugged remote trip tough portages and white water and everything and we were at 13 days and this trip will only be half of that and that was an unforgettable trip but I still got so much out of this one that trip was not as fun in the moment it was still really great but there were times when it was just exhausting and this was just pure pleasure so yeah this worked out incredibly well the first day started off great it was very therapeutic to be back out in the canoe then day two it was rainy it was a less interesting part of the lake and I felt kind of uninspired and thinking like uh well the strip's not gonna be that great but day three changed all that and it was an incredible day it surged right back all kinds of birds loons then the bear moose and capped it off with the walleye fish fry at that beautiful campsite day four had that great encounter with the cow and calf moose and then the nice cozy campsite on the pout River yesterday started with those otters and then that beautiful Pike and then I eventually got to this campsite so no need to drag it out I got everything I could ask for out of this experience it's time to get ready for the next one Aaron and I have a trip coming up probably a 10-day trip in 10 days so that's another part of leaving today it's not like I won't be out of it for a while so I'm gonna finish packing up I'll show you in the map where I met and what I've got left it's not much as I pull out the map it feels harder to leave again it's just a gem of a lake but yeah I'm here on the south channel south of Big Island and all I have to do is paddle out I might linger there and boot Bay and then carry up here back to my access point [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] coming through the south channel and the wind has picked up a bit but still barely any chop so it's fine to paddle through just a little extra effort and I'm almost in boot Bay and then I should be able to cut up north and that should be the end of going straight into the wind [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] back to the access point there's a helicopter going by probably scouting for forest fires with this dry heat and wind and the wind certainly was there I was so sheltered at that campsite but yeah it was it was the forecast was right but drop wasn't too bad got through it an amazing Lake and I'm just so thrilled that my knee held up through this like two or three weeks ago I couldn't have imagined being here so it felt extra good and it'll stick to the big lakes the mega Lakes for as long as need be and it's really no sacrifice right now like trip I have with Aaron coming up in less than two weeks I'm really excited for and then lots more after that so saying goodbye to McKay Lake and on to the next foreign

Channel: Lost Lakes

Views: 173,877

Keywords: lost lakes, camping, fishing, ontario, canada, bushcraft, backcountry angling ontario, winter, wilderness, solo

Id: ZWNb0gibJq4

Length: 64min 37sec (3877 seconds)

Published: Tue Jun 20 2023