Exploring a Remote & Rugged River in the Wild Country North of Lake Superior

we have found ourselves in a bit of an interesting situation just like that watch you good morning [Music] [Music] right now you're witnessing yet another riveting Jim beared oatmeal [Music] scene today we have a day that is going to be dominated by consistent White Water if you just look at the map it basically looks like we're following a train track because everywhere where there's a rapid Mark there's a couple bars longer Rapids multiple bars and there's so many of them that just looks like like we're following a train track so that's interesting hopefully there should be a lot of like fun runnable Rapids but there's going to be definitely more portaging than yesterday too including uh some portages that are getting to be on the Longs [Music] side Cowboy Coffee is good little chewy but good [Music] jenor do you have any thoughts no not much going on today thank you Mr son son Mr Golden Sun please shine down on me dog River day three pushing off little nice to run here well we are are on the water baby not a lot of fish in this River we're learning hey there's the Ducks absolute beauty of a morning you're not making me want to go all out beast mode just took a few casts while uh waiting for these guys to put in and uh no luck you'd think this would be a good stretch trying in the shallows for pike this time of year northern pike are usually in the shallows uh and then tried sort of in the current as well which is good for everything and uh no luck so but I'm going to keep trying I got a few spots scoped out on the map that we're going to stop and take a few cast at are you guys just going to get out and Scout or you're just going to run it like it's a two plus right yeah so there could be some pinning hazards so I say we just take get out take a look can decide you know left right or middle you know what I mean yeah we got a long class two plus and at these levels it's going to be real bouldery so when you have these Rapids that are kilometer 2 km long it's almost impossible to scout the whole thing and remember your line so you're going to have to make some reactionary choices when you're out there and um I find it always helps to just quickly make up your mind and go and this opposed to staring at the thing you don't want to hit you end up just crashing into it but so essentially we're going to have to Scout and decide okay do we stay mostly left do we stay right just get a general idea of what part of the rapid looks less pinny and bouldery and dump and wrap your canoe and have to walk out kind of thing which is definitely a possibility and a two plus so yeah just approaching it right now I'm going to pull up on the right hand side [Music] and there is a blind corner so yeah just scouting this rapid and it looks manageable definitely some Boulder dodging so I'm going to stay right at the top then get left but then it peels around on a tight right hand corner so I should get out and go and Scout it and just make sure there's nothing sketchy you know ledge or something right around that corner you always want to be careful for blind corners but it looks like we have a runnable ret here which is exciting so here's what's around the next Corner this and another blind Corner the walk continues so you could come along here here and just miss it there or you could bomb over the wav yeah okay well we're heading back to the canoes and uh we're all going to run it so here we go baby looks like a fun run nothing too crazy some big waves some Boulder dodging and uh yeah should be no problem famous last words I know borderline maybe don't need these dry suits eh I bet the water's ice cold though yeah well you guys uh my knees hurt so I'm going first [Music] [Music] a woo that was easy eh yeah that was fun did you guys bomb the big waves at the end no no I asked him you want to go w i bombed him you bomb him I missed the first train though just cuz it looked kind of squirly like it was going to push me into Shore we stayed dry the entire time yeah yeah [Music] [Music] [Music] no that was that had to be though no there might be like another drop you know what I mean guys how gorgeous is this River though eh what do you see there Xander it it looks like a a obvious Portage takeup this is the one that's it starts off with a four right it starts with a four and then there's two thre so if you guys see a pudding below the four that means the other two threes are runnable so just keep an eye [Music] out I think it looks pretty dangerous you could get yeah [Music] for this portaging going to musk all up look at this little pouch here just held together with uh magnets so I can access it easily perfect thing I'm just using a muscal 30% deep lotion trust me when you're carrying the canoe and the bugs are just all in your face and you can't SWAT them cuz your hands are tied up probably about the best time in the world to have some mosquito repellent mostly it's black flags right now he pretty powerful man I know at tandem you got to be like P you got to be on a team right or you kind like all my bags are packed ready to go this is kind of a tricky pudd in Brad and cam actually dumped trying to Eddie in here [Music] [Music] this one's a pretty big drop here you know which side the Portage is on looks like a little shoot he Max yeah these are the power lines right here all right okay yeah looks like we might be able to find a tongue down this one eh this might be a Max special right here bud yeah there's a nice little tongue there on the left yeah it looks like uh it might be interesting though eh like some some reactionary braces needed well going run it perfect had to do a brace but I was coming in on a weird angle and it was a lot of fun yeah well coming up we have a class five so that's going to be a p pretty long one too that was H just a fun little drop but unfortunately where I pulled over was in a tricky spot I was kind of blocked by a tree and some rocks it was deep and it was close to the ledge so I kind of had to come in sideways and spin which made things more interesting cuz I had to do a couple of braces and took in some water but definitely more action-packed because I didn't feel like waiting back up River so yeah beautiful day but man it's hot in this dry suit thing is the water is freezing cold so if you were to swim you could still get hypothermia pretty quick we have a little ledge coming up here little class one hereo on yeah Jim bar struggles against his gut said that so fny as you can see this is real interesting uh pretty dangerous actually there's basically a cliff we have to Portage up so everybody had to take turns get in their bags and their canoes up one by one but uh we're up now so that's good I actually think this is runable aent oh yeah yeah maybe where's the pudding straight over to your right you got to keep on Down The Far Side Max I mean I guess go over there oh yeah [Music] water well we are uh at this beautiful beautiful lunch spot just portaged around a three- ledg set that I'd say good chance the bottom two would be runnable but um we we just kind of decided it's a pretty short Portage and when you're in a remoter location like we are here sometimes it's better to just uh not mess around too much we want to push ourselves and raise the bar but uh we don't want to do anything that's you know that we don't need to do when we're so far away from the closest road because we're far AB Brad like this is this is miles and miles from the closest road yeah and then yeah so it's like 30k probably and then the paint Lake Road you have to walk all the way up River and then you'd be you know and then and then you and then what the on the paint Lake Road no cell reception you got to walk on the paint Lake Road for like another 15 20 30 km like you're you're here by yourself that's it you got to rely on yourself out here class four anyway so we're you know essentially we're not really running much over class three out here except if there's something really short so yeah it looks like uh we have another couple more Ledges to go today maybe a carryover maybe we'll run something that we shouldn't after that speech who knows I'm running all these Rapids out here with this H2O paddle and I got to say I'm loving it it's got a carbon fiber shaft wooden te- grip and a very wide blade ah Cool Breeze Well Suited up again what we thought was going to be easy looks like it's pretty challenging with a lot of rocks these guys are taking uh essentially lining it like walking their boats along Shore at the end of ropes [Music] it says Class 2 plus [Music] ye well nailed the rapid that's good Max and Ted ran it too and uh Brad and K H's boat Portage as well as Xander short Portage they weren't in the mood for anything too uh too bouldery today so anyways yeah we're through it Fun Run so that was awesome here we go this one's pretty straightforward but then there's just like a cliff rock face I have to dodge [Music] [Music] [Applause] he [Music] these last two were down as two pluses yeah but the first one was probably more like a three but maybe went in higher water it would have been easier one was two yeah [Music] wo that last one was fun eh yeah at first I'm like is that a rock or a wave yeah I'm like that's just a glassy wait the first one there some yeah on the first one yeah that was weird well we just kind of we glided over something on the lip that was kind of weird and sketchy no the second one I no I went right into a rock I don't know what the happened there yeah you hit with your Bing did you no my right under me oh I hit it on my bum too yeah feel like I probably wouldn't dump I might P full of water but I good chance of dumping I already have a bunch of water in here yeah you should probably fail all right I'm going bud [Music] a [Music] well that was super fun just a raging like almost a little waterfall we ran not much water in the river after that and so I just kind of picked my way along some Boulders and just ran up on them and got out and waited the rest which is exactly what I thought was going to happen and uh sure enough Ted Max and Xander are all running it I'm still waiting for Ted to come down and uh Brad and Cam went over and ran the other side of this island here there's like a class three wave train so yeah it's been just a beautiful day but to be honest with you kind of hot to be wearing these dry suits kind of killing me you know you can work really hard on a river like this and pretty much make it nowhere and that's what happened with all the portaging and scouting and what have you early on today so now we're hoping we could make a little more distance and uh we can get to Lake Superior in the amount of time we've given ourselves we have about 7 days for this trip um but it's amazing how much you know if somebody tells you 10 miles well you know I traveled 10 mil by canoe that could mean 10 very different difficulty levels right you do 2 miles here it could take you all day or more easily whereas on on a calm day on a big lake you know you travel that far in an afternoon so anywh who yeah having a blast out here dog River baby over honestly come anywhere in here too yeah like you're going to bump through it if you still you're I don't know I'm pretty comfortable with this yeah [Music] you [Applause] [Music] yeah well we all made it down the rapid with the open side of our canoes up so that's good and uh it's getting a little later in the day there's another big rapid up there we're going to go check it out but it's probably going to be Portage and then uh we're probably going to look for a place to Camp supposed to be a good spot by a waterfall which sounds pretty awesome so maybe there'll be some fish there but I'm definitely not banking on it at this point maybe this will be runnable too who knows we're going to go check it out how you doing Xander good man actually great great a little tired from lack of sleep but man today was amazing and I just decided to not even think about this last one just poured it my brain's turning off but today was amazing easiest Portage of the trip eh yeah it was well that is the last obstruction of the day me and Ted lined it Max ran it I could have run it actually but it was very very Rocky so yeah these these last couple obstructions haven't been as demanding and time consuming as we thought they were going to be which is always nice we're able to run one and easy Portage lining running the second one if you're Max well we are just at the brink of a waterfall here that's where our campsite is but I think it's at the bottom of the trail hey guys okay so there's one at the top one at the Bott let's hope the one at the top is the one [Music] around here yeah back in the [Music] forest rain and thunder till three in then it should clear up by yeah so it's going to rain at the at night e so we're sleeping in just kidding yeah like it says it's going to thunder and rain until about 8:00 a.m. it's going to thunder and rain how's that V [Music] [Music] well I am just enjoying a hot chocolate that my brother Ted made for me um and uh that's about a wrap on the day it is 10:00 at night um we made it about 10K today which is is what we needed to make it and you know 10K maybe doesn't sound like a lot for a full day but on this River it's not easily achieved uh tomorrow is going to be the same thing except more paging um but maybe we know that some of these things are going to just be waterfalls and class fli and we just get out Port dog right away as opposed to scouting them and deciding whether we're going to line or whether we're going to run and whatnot so you know it may not be as bad as we think for it might be work we don't know till we get into it heavy rain heavy wind this morning rain was just coming in sheets and the clouds were just screaming past but we got to make it today through probably what's going to be the hardest day yet two coffee morning this morning I think that's strong okay and we are off day four we have uh two more days from now to make it to Lake Superior and then 2 days on Lake Superior which should be good except if it's as windy as it is today and we're on Lake Superior we can't travel and we might be sitting there windbound for a long time so let's hope that this weather breaks to be honest with you it's good to get this really windy foul weather out of the way now as opposed to when we're on the big lake uh looks like we have some runnable Rapids to start off with and just a gorgeous gorgeous waterfall here um but uh then we're going to get into some pretty heavy portaging today and we're going to be battling headwinds today too strong strong wind blowing up river which makes Rapids really challenging it's hard enough just to paddle on Flat Water in heavy wind uh let alone in Rapid so we'll we'll see what we can do it might mean we have to pour Taj more I don't know here's [Music] Jun for heart forward forward heart yeah an awesome save buddy just pretend you surfed that hole on purpose well that's what happens when you look too far ahead obvious that is oh this is the ledge me and Ted dumped on [Music] [Music] things are getting a little more interesting here in River City [Music] okay well we line that one bit of current in between we we run the next one so this one's a hard turn like that so I'm actually going to try to back very right in this current so that means I'm going to point the stern of my canoe in the direction I want to go and I'm actually going to point the bow away from the direction I want to go it's kind of counterintuitive wo fun okay so we got to what's marked as a class 4 on some River notes we have and uh we decided that you know what the water level is probably a little low there's some rocks some big holes and so for our setup we decided to just take what's likely the quicker option and line the top of it and then two three three man carry right around to the bottom not very far quicker faster than portaging and you know maybe even faster than running it because of the amount of time it would take to Scout and all that stuff too so yeah we just lined around the top there into this Eddy and then just carried over the boulders and sort of carried and slid it across these slick rocks right to the end no problem and a couple guys are grabbing a little bite to eat and we're going to jump in the water and head to the next rapid uh actually not a bad day to be honest with you the rain buggered off still a headwind which really messed up Ted and Max and almost me on that ledge we ran back there but uh it's not blazing hot which is actually nice when you're you know suited up in a dry suit and you got a Portage in that so anyways yeah we're just making our way along one thing at a time uh trying not to rush trying to stay safe and hopefully by the end of the day we'll have made our distance we'll see work really nice I'm going to bomb like the middle wave there's a rock in the bottom of it oh yeah and Ted smoked it here we have another ledge basically just like little waterfalls are running on this thing well that one did not go as planned I got a little too aggressive uh a little too much confidence cuz I've been nailing these runs and uh I just basically bombed into a hole and hit a rock that flipped me uh that I just wasn't prepared for and by the time I went to brace it was all all too late I thought it was going to be good to go but anyways yeah a little bit little bit of a humbling experience but all is [Music] well back on the river really didn't get to uh film much of the last two portages because it was pissing rain and we're just so behind schedule woo I've totally redeemed myself s stay left at the top yeah that's the part you can't see it looks like it's if you hit it right at the top you just go into all these boils but the left just pushes right through fun solid run by Xander oh please no pleas we just ran the rapid up River and came right around the corner and there's a big waterfall Mist coming up thunder that's why you don't want to dump you got to be careful about what's uh below you [Music] fire [Music] that had everything that would be my video and now man way too much water I got to put back this whole pot of pasta cuz apparently there's ner a fish to be caught on the dog River basically kind of Gab up today on fishing because uh it just kind of back to back to back Rapids with any luck tomorrow we'll be camp at the mouth of the dog River on Lake Superior so I think the fishing should be good there but we're going to have a very big day tomorrow very challenging a lot of pushing a lot of hard Rapids a lot of portaging and then one of the most amazing things is going to be Dennis and Falls which is I think only 30 ft shorter than Niagara super gigantic impressive waterfall um right at the end of the river however there's about a 3our Portage that needs to be taken to get around it so I'm going to finish up my pot of I don't know what the hell it is some sort of creamy noodles it's not uh particularly inspiring I'm going to finish it up and uh climb in the tent for yet another welld deserved sleep [Music] I'm going TI shivery this morning Brad 5° and um very wet and damp everybody's clothes are wet um there just a moer to the air that's very cold we have to immediately jump into like the lost three ring well it is the morning of day five and uh we didn't make it quite as far as we wanted to yesterday uh because we ended up running out of time and found oursel in the midst of a long and raging Whitewater Canyon very few places to camp really but um we did a little bit of scouting Xander and Max kind of walked up this hill and uh found a spot and we actually found a fireplace down lower on a little Terrace so obviously the exact same things happened to some other groups but in the end it's actually been one of the places with the most flat spots for tents yet on the trip probably the most flat spaces to Camp so it actually worked out great so we decided that instead of continuing to Portage we're going to run another stretch of this Canon so we have three class 3 Ledges then like a screaming Class 2 three that goes around a corner followed by um a class one and then a waterfall uh so if we dump in one of the ledges it's going to be a little scarier cuz there's current and it eventually leads to a fall so we'll just have to make sure that we are smart about it we get our canoe into a side Eddie we should be okay uh we don't want to do anything stupid but it's definitely uh you know a bit of a reminder if you do dump hey get to shore no time like the present time to get going and um the adventure continues we got a real Adventure out here so uh that's exciting I like [Music] those be running this stuff Edie hopping and hopefully not get up down the [Music] [Music] [Music] he too far left don't go too far left there's a rock I get to go Scout yeah there's another ledge like right there I'm being maybe stay there I got to go Scout it is what we were at the brink of right here okay well we have found ourselves in a bit of an interesting situation we're essentially stuck in a canyon we Portage into it and we have an obstruction a tricky class two that is right at the brink of a death waterfall if we try to Portage up on the other side it's like a literal Mountain climb that would take all day so what I'm going to do right now is I'm going to try to paddle over to the other side and Ted's going to catch me oh actually this is clearly what everyone does yeah here I'll pull you up to this walk well that worked out pretty good I was essentially kind of on the wrong side of the river uh although to catch the Eddy back on the side where I came from it made sense to cross does that make sense I don't know but uh yeah essentially I paddled across caught a little Eddy and it was actually shallow enough there for me to jump out so in the end you know not a big deal not a super fancy maneuver but when you have this just down river a matter of you know 30 ft down river if that things get a little more high stakes and we don't want to die it's just it's not us [Music] [Music] we just portaged this you can't see from here but it's about a 15 ft waterfall probably more uh then we have a really fun runnable rapid here big water potentially you could miss this part and just run down that side too but the only problem is right around the corner there's a freaking another waterfall so if you were to dump on this you might get washed over the falls because the current's really pushy through here so yeah we just portaged the Falls so the probably the smartest thing to do would be put in line This carry over here line that and then I don't know what [Music] the heavy it's a heavy canoe more durable but heavier [Music] [Music] [Music] [Applause] now we have some more interesting stuff to contend with perfect run feel real good about that well that's probably the last big grapping of the trip so uh thanks to Max I don't know if we would have run that one but he said let's do it I said okay I'll do it if you do it and he even went first took the honors nailed it so yeah I feel great about that the big hole at the end I just pushed right over it no issue came in on the right side of it but uh that's a solid class 4 coming up we got another couple Rapids and then a massive portage so with any luck we will make it to Lake Superior today but it's going to be well earned if and when we do then we have a whole new Beast to tackle gugi massive Lake the biggest freshwater lake in the world by surface area and it can throw up some big Breakers so we're going to have to cast our schedules to the wind when the winds are down we paddle and that's basically the mo for Lake Superior but I don't want to get too far ahead of myself we still got a lot of uh dog River ahead of us and a beautiful fall so stay tuned for that and yeah having a blast out here great way to end this little stretch of white [Music] water what can I say except you're welcome for the islands I pulled from the sea what a beautiful day beautiful stretch of white water in front of me not too hard not too easy where do you guys have the Portage Trail starting huge island if I remember right there's like two big Stone like ramp Parts on either side of the portal to just sure death we're done the bulk of the crazy white water in the dog River and now we're just running endless Swifts Big Stretch of class two three Rapids where we just Eddie hopped scating as we went now it's just wonderful Swifts fun paddling the day got sunnier not too hot not too cold and we are just cruising until the PS resistance of the dog river which is the mighty Dennis Falls that's going to be a hell of a Portage but we're doing good probably a little further along than we anticipated being at this time of day actually uh but that's going to be about a 3-hour Portage oh man we're there we're at Dennison Falls woo it's a crazy portal uh to the falls very very tight if you were to go down there you'd get very very very very very very very hurt very dead Jim don't go down there don't go down there ooh fiddle heads [Music] real [Music] [Music] [Music] I just walked in front of the main drop of the falls which is a pretty sketchy part and now we have what is a very interesting put in here there's a bit of a traffic jam of canoes cuz we can only really put in realistically one at a time the trail goes like this and ends in a sheer Cliff that drops right down into to an Eddy below where I think there is some current so we're essentially going to have to lower the canoe and gear down this Cliff with ropes very interesting but if we finish this we should be getting to Camp before dark who knows maybe with enough time to catch a fish but it's got to be 6:37 right now I can see the sun going down so we don't want to push this part we don't want to hurry cuz that's dangerous but we kind of want to hurry a bit no Dilly gley and this is the pudd in right down there and then off of a sheer Cliff you stay out of the way just in case it starts barreling down right tell the guys about rock just like that watch it wow throw rope broke you thing might not blow really it's going to take a hell of a lot of duck tap H he says it's going to take a lot of duct tape ask who's next so yeah we're just stopped here at Dennis and Falls mid Portage Trail and it's just like I don't know really cool like feeling this Falls is giving me it's just like almost relaxing but yet so powerful like just such an awesome awesome sight to see and so we all threw our bags off on this tough Portage and walked along the Rocks beside the falls and just kind of took it all in there's actually another great vantage point from down below and the falls even drops down more but this is the main brunt of it here so pretty freaking special spot but uh we still got a lot of portaging left in front of us that was okay so no better way to say it br's and Cam's boat took a took a ride bashed the front in we had to lower everything down one by one which took a long time bags and then clamber down ourselves down ropes to get past this last drop we have another obstruction down here hopefully we can line it and we're two clicks from the coast but uh looking like we're going to make it hopefully another cool thing at the base here our reward I found some fresh water Crest smells amazing so I'm going to pick some Water Crest and put it with our fiddle heads hey Bri you think it's pable I think we get a cold right on like the boat stuff get plates and the Ley tanks yeah not so much but you want water like that pretty tough yeah bye-bye Dennis and Falls you're beautiful but cruel mistress woo yeah well we have 2 kilm to go to the coast probably less now it's late in the evening it's Sun I think is down but any minute we'll be pulling up on beautiful Lake Superior well I think it is is safe to say that we survived the dog River we are at the mouth all the Rapids and Falls are behind us and I am just pulling up to a big Sandbar on Mighty Lake Superior and look I see a bald eagle unbelievable it's a beautiful evening and tomorrow we will tackle a long paddle on the world's largest freshwater lake by surface area what an adventure down on the dog but we're definitely not home free yet we just paddled the dog River what a trip and what an adventure that's all I can say awesome awesome adventure beautiful River wow it's beautiful Lake Superior well I probably should be uh setting up my tent and collecting firewood however it's kind of prime fishing right now and it would be really nice to have some fish to fry up so I'm going to walk over to the mouth here and take a few [Music] casts I solemnly declare that this is the finest group of men ever [Music] [Music] thank you sir thank you J thank you can I haven't had them before but nail the cooking a of Tommy you are they usually available spr right now cuz they're ferns they're Ostrich Ferns the ferns and it's like the fern unraveling yeah it's austrich FS wow that was awesome only austrich F watch that where are they Jim oh right here you want them well today was a pretty epic day bombing pretty much class 4 Rapids eddying out at the brink of waterfalls lining rushing Boulder strewing channels to portaging on slippery rocks around thundering giant waterfalls in the wilderness floating down miles upon miles of Swift Current with Rapids and uh getting to Lake Superior to find what is a perfect campsite all pretty special but I have to say that Dennis and Falls definitely Takes the Cake apparently it's only about 30 ft shorter than Niagara what an epic spectacle and it's really cool that it's still in a remote hard to reach place I'm going to just finish up this Meal which to be honest with you isn't very good and uh turn in for yet another welld deserved sleep got n Jo I've been married a long time ago where did you come from where did you go where did you com from Kat Jo

Channel: Jim Baird - Adventurer

Views: 54,878

Keywords: Jim Baird, Jim Baird Adventurer, Lake Superior, exploring, remote river, Lake Superior north shore, north of Lake Superior, dog river, solo whitewater, wilderness camping, camping, canoe camping, outdoors, wilderness adventure, Wild country, whitewater, waterfalls, portage, Wild fiddleheads

Id: _hOkTGINcfE

Length: 59min 58sec (3598 seconds)

Published: Thu Jun 20 2024