Phil is almost 70. He calls us "kids". When I'm talking to Phil, I call Ray and Jerry, "the boys" ....and I'm the only "girl" in the family. And you become a family unit after 24/7. I'm also the official trip photographer and now scribe. This is a group shot, sitting on the bench under the tarp...we sat there the entire previous rainy day. Coffee is on, and breakfast is about to be served. Mountain House Granola with Blueberries....my favourite!!!! Just before this photo was taken I took a group shot without myself in it. I thought I had set the timer so I could be in it too, but I hadn't and just got one of those three! ROFL
After the fear of bringing my bulky camera was laid to rest....I brought it everywhere....except on ONE reconnaissance trip where we were guaranteed to get very wet. I got a lot of ribbing over leaving the camera "home". We have dubbed it: "The Lost Chapter"...and although there is no photo evidence, it was one of the most discouraging, wettest, most exhilarating trips of the week. It should be told next, lest it really be lost. If you're just tuning in, you should begin with the previous post: "Wabakimi: the First Chapter".
Near the end of our work week, we head across the bay.( which is really a dog leg at the Southern end of Granite Lake), straight into the mouth of Ballast Creek. Ballast Creek marks the departure from Granite Lake in the direction of Otter Bluff Lake. It starts in the creek....but it is more like a "rock garden". Think of what a rock garden will do to the bottom of your beautiful new 18' red Kevlar Souris River canoe. It almost hurts. It's probably good that there is no visual evidence.... We navigate the "creek" as far as we can.....
Before I go on...I must tell you about the existing MNR (Ministry of Natural Rescources) "maps". They exist in book form and the pages are called "section sheets". On each sheet is the lake area you are navigating, with numbers and enlarged circle sections that correspond with each number. So if you are looking at the section sheet for Granite Lake and Otter Bluff Lake, you will see the lakes, the creeks and ponds that connect them, and dotted lines that represent the approximate whereabouts of the portage trails. The sheets date back to the 1940s and are the most up to date route information for paddlers heading into Wabakimi Provincial Park for a paddling trip. The sections are not to scale, have no contour lines, and the portages are not measured....so basically....you have no idea what you'll encounter when you head into the park. Each circle section shows a dotted line for the portage.... Phil does not have many flattering things to say about the MNR or the section sheets, yet they are foundation for his work and he keeps meticulous records, even if only to eventually show the MNR how poor and outdated the sections sheets really are.
We navigate the creek as far as we can....and are keeping our eyes peeled for a blaze on the left hand bank of the creek. That's where the dotted line starts. We don't see a blaze anywhere. Occasionally the tree with the blaze blows down and the landing place is lost. Since there is very little foot traffic, you don't spot the beaten path either, like you might in Killarney or Algonquin. We make landfall near a beaver draw, this is an area near a beaver lodge where the beaver will haul branches up onto shore or into the water....it's almost a little hallway among the hummocks, in the winter it is a tunnel of sorts. We walk through the grass to the treeline. Often you connect with a portage trail in the treeline that is more protected. A short way into the treeline, the spruce and pine disappear and give way to a close scrub of alder and birch trees, with the odd evergreen. This is clear evidence of a burn. This also means that any blazed trees have likely gone up in smoke. Morale plummets. The tree line usually begins where the water line stops and the Canadian shield begins. Where the sun warms the ground, and there are no evergreens, alder, birch, and aspen take over quickly. They grow close together and branches intertwine like the fingers of praying hands. Imagine trying to walk through this. Then imagine having a 130lb pack or a canoe on your shoulders. THAT's why we're here. We fight our way through the scrub and make it to the pond, which seems to have decreased in size and the boggy shoreline has increased proportionately. It would be a horrible portage. We fight our way through back to the canoes and put in. It is discouraging and exhausting to slog around for 2 hours and come up empty handed. We head further up the creek and the water level drops...we get out and pull the canoes up the creek. It is the wettest we've been yet....you get soakers when you're walking through the bog, but wading knee deepish in the creek is new for us. Actually a neat new part of the adventure. When the water is deep enough we paddle, ever vigilant for and dodging the boulders....they sneak up on you and you leave some paint behind. Ouch. The bow paddler is supposed to be the spotter. Supposed to be.... You also have to fight the current here and there when the creek narrows, which becomes tricky paddling with a lot of "draw!"....NO!! DRAW!!! and "cross draw!"(my new favourite stroke).
We make it through to the shrunken pond section, paddle through, re-enter the waterway, and by wading further up the creek we eventually come to the bend that should be the landing for the second portage. The dotted line indicates that it's on the right hand side. There is a mess of about 6 blowdowns....things are NOT looking up. We climb out and up and over....hoping that as we head a little ways inland we will stumble onto the portage trail. We have a short break, and look around for a while...eventually I find the first blaze!!! This is such a great feeling after the morning we've had! Adrenaline starts to flow and the boys are filled with new enthusiasm. The next blazes are easy to find and they walk ahead of Phil and I.
Phil is flagging the blazes and I'm keeping him company. He is a fount of information: history, bush lore, and tracking tips. Phil's movements are slow and deliberate. He insists on climbing over the blowdowns on the game trail. The blazes line up in almost a perfect straight line when we look over our shoulders and spot the flags. On the way back to the canoes Phil tells me that his feet tell him a lot. He can feel the trail and that's why he climbs over the obstacles, because the way the moss compacts under his feet will tell whether we are still on the trail or have lost it. Sometimes it's hard to tell, it all looks like the same lush green moss. When there are blow downs, all game abandon the original trail, continuing to follow the path of least resistance. There was one place where you could clearly see hoof prints in the moss. Any foot prints we make in the 6-8 inch thickness of wet spongy moss usually decompress by the next day...this is the resilient nature of moss. Caribou and moose can be there one minute and gone the next but you'll never hear them. I try what Phil has just taught me. I try and feel with my feet. I know....sounds hokey...but once you tune your senses to this new frequency you realize that it works. I learned a lot from Phil. He teaches a lot to those who are willing to listen. Hearing and listening are two different things, and education is a big part of what Phil does. He doesn't just tell you the "what" but also the "why", and it all makes perfect sense. I call it "simple brilliance".
Flagging the trail is a science with its own protocol. The tape is tied above a blaze. One must tie a double knot and never a bow, the whiskey-jacks can untie a bow as they desire to bring this bright string/tape to line their nest. (At first mention, I thought whiskey-jacks might be "alcohol toting lumber leprechauns" but it turns out that they are the curious and bold Gray Jay with a magpie like affinity for bright things.) The knot in the tape indicates which side of the tree the trail passes by. A tree with a true blaze will be marked on both sides of the tree, the front and the back....a third blaze will mark a departure from the trail and will show the direction of this departure. A departure will be indicated by a second colour of tape and if its tied above the primary tape then it indicates a clearer, easier path to travel.... When you paddle through here someday, the marking tape will be long gone, but the blazes will remain....they are your trail markers. The next crew will come in, measure and clear this portage. Once it is cleared and measured the flagging tape will be removed....or else it would be litter....and after all, this is a wilderness trip....not walk in the park on a marked footpath.
The other reason Phil climbs over the mess of blowdowns is that he is wearing the GPS. He marks every landing, or way point. It tracks every move we move we make and he would like our moves to be in as accurate and clean a line as possible, not a "Family Circus" outing circling every blowdown and rootball. The GPS measures the distance between the way points horizontally as the crow flies, and it follows us as walk. It does not allow for changes in elevation....and there are some steep climbs which can 50 or 60 meters to the length of your portage. A couple of those can add a few hundred meters!! Phil has a photographic memory. He studies the topo map very closely. He compares it to the section sheets and figures out where we need to be. Phil loves to use the GPS to show where we've been, but rarely needs it to show where we're going.
We did not even stop for lunch on this day, so excited to see where the portage would lead. I had a few handfulls of GORP. This portage leads to big water, not a pond...but the sausage shaped lake on the section sheet. Beyond this is another pond, another portage and a creek that leads to Otter Bluff Lake. This is one of the three routes that meet up in the lower section of Granite Lake.
So what will happen with the non-existing first portage? Phil and the next crew will make a new trail through the alder scrub. You can't portage by wading up the creek since water levels change throughout the season, and it is mighty cold up here in May. They will flag the most direct route to the pond, with the shortest piece of bog. They'll cut a path through the scrub and then an amazing thing will begin to happen. Once you create a path of least resistance...the moose and caribou will begin to use it and beat it down, which will keep the alder from growing back in.
With ominous black clouds at our backs, we head for home... We are almost back at the mouth of Ballast and out of the corner of our eyes is a lone spruce tree at the edge of the creek bank...with an obvious blaze. Sometimes you can't see the tree for the forest.
Phil spent a long time looking at it from our campsite, reading the landscape, and the most likely place to pull up. And once we paddled over....this blaze was clear AS DAY, and certainly not old. Our best guess is that it was made by Native hunters following caribou in the winter. Notice how high up the canoes had to go? I'm standing on the rocks at the landing and the branches of the tree are hanging over me. The section sheets point you in the general direction but once you get there, you still have to actually find Point A. Occassionally there are 6 trees laying across the path at Point A and you have to create your own alternative.....
This is my favourite chapter, the highlight of my trip (I won't say "our trip"" because I think Ray liked different things than I did). This day of "work" turned out to be one of my favourite days because I got to take pictures all day. I could indulge my inner flora geek. We went through quite a few different kinds of terrain so there was also a wide variety of plant life. A bog with a creek, caribou ridges, dense boreal forest, more bog, and a beaver meadow. We had to find the blazes on the way to the other landing and Ray and Jerry measured this portage on the way back. We did not clear this portage....so we traveled light with relatively empty hands. We didn't make it to the very end, because it ended in a bog that was so long we couldn't spot the water....we dove back into the treeline, found a new game trail and a few blazes and got closer but not to the end. Phil asked me to photograph the treeline on our flight out and send him the pictures. Our last way point is marked on the GPS, and the crew that comes up from Van Ness, later this season, will try to connect the dots from the other direction. With the photograph, they be able to see whether it is worth pursuing a trail through the trees, and Phil can see where the top of the bog is....the GPS will confirm where we've been. The flat light green area on the right side of the picture is the bog and the place where we first entered it isn't even visible. The slice of water at the top right is our leg of Granite Lake and the forest in between...spans about 1.5km. Can't wait to see what Phil will do with this one, I sense that he and his crew will end up with at least 2km of portage trail if they skirt the entire length of the bog, but at least they'll keep dry feet. :)
On the day we set out on this trip, Phil has given his blessing for me to click away to my heart's content. I sense that he enjoys my love for the wildness of this place, and my desire to capture some of its essence so others can see it the way it is. I saw the most beautiful mushrooms and fungi on this trail. Some species must have popped up overnight encouraged by the rain the day before. I love looking them up in a book and finding their names. The next time I am hiking and look around on the ground it's like seeing a familiar face. I imagine God looking down and seeing all of us walking around here. He knows all our names and the paths that we're on. He knows the name of every star in the sky, from one end of the Milky Way to the other....and then some. That blows my mind! So I feel small again, but welcome, privileged, and invited to see how fearfully and wonderfully He has crafted this remote piece of His Creation. I marvel at the hundreds of little sections that make up a piece of peat moss, and how the sections differ between the species, and how the colour depends on the amount moisture it receives and how much sun it receives. I love how much more I can see when I watch the pictures pop up on the screen, especially the close ups....and how much more I notice when I see them for the 3rd or 4th time. I am amazed to peer into the pitchers of the pitcher plant and see the downward facing hairs that prevent insects from escaping. I was looking at this tiny species of mushroom that actually only grows on other decaying mushrooms, and I saw a moss, that I had paged past a few times in my book, growing right in front of them....and yes...I get excited when I see the portrait gallery at http://www.lichen.com/portraits.html.
