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  1. #1
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    Solo Down the Cache River A Canoe trip

    There was a trip planned that fell through. My partner could not go so I tried to get someone else to go and nothing panned out so the trip was delayed and turned into a solo. This solo was to be about 10 days and start off going up Baptism Creek and on to Cache Lake.
    8-12-14 Yesterday and today were good days for driving a little rain but not much and now I am in the old hotel in Atikokan. Tomorrow I plan on having a cold breakfast in the room and going in at French Lake.
    8-13-14 I slept well and when I woke had breakfast. Part of my getting dressed was to put duct tape on the spots on my feet where I always get blisters. At 5:30 I am on my way to French Lake the temperature is 46°. The forecast is for clear skies for today but now it is solid over cast and looks like it could rain. There was one moose on the highway and little traffic. At about 7:00 I shoved off and headed for French River. The sky is mostly clear with a light breeze. While heading up the French River I missed the turnoff for Baptism Creek. When I got to where I thought it should be there was only a small creek that I could not get up. Looking at the map and what was in front of me I found that there were 2 places where Baptism Creek could run into the river. I was at the upper one and could see through the weeds and see the creek. I went back down stream to where the majority of the creek runs into the river. I lost about 10 to 15 minutes getting on the creek. On one of the portages that is on the west side of the creek while on my way back for my second load there was an animal making a lot of noise. It sounded like a bird squawking. When I got to the landing there were two otters screaming at me. As I walked up to the landing they disappeared. I ate lunch at the camp site on Baptism Lake.
    I made my destination for today on Trousers Lake at about 2:00. There is only one good camp site on Trousers and it is over used. Many of the trees are dead but still standing.
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    After setting up and changing into dry close I turned my attention to my feet. The duct tape was almost completely off but dry shoes and socks felt good. I got my fishing gear out and cast from shore but no luck. With my dry shoes on I did not want to get them wet and was too lazy to change so I packed the gear away so things would be ready for travel tomorrow. After exploring the island I had an early supper and was in bed by about 7:30. I know it is too early but I am ready. This afternoon the wind has been surging. It will be almost dead com for 5 to 15 minutes then blow kind of hard for about the same amount of time. It is still doing that as I go to bed. There were no bugs today not even on the portages.
    8-14-14 I slept till 6:30! It is still dark with heavy fog when I peek out. I can’t see the trees on the other side of the camp site. The wind is dead com and no bugs. Even things that were dry and hanging under my tarp all night were wet this morning. After a lazy breakfast, retapeing my feet and breaking down camp I was on the portage at about 8:00 with ½ gallon of water. As the portage approaches the Cache River from this direction it has been rerouted. It is actually a more direct rout now but not any dryer than it was.
    472JPG


    When the first load was at Cache Lake it was time for lunch. On the second load from the river to Cache Lake I started stumbling. I was getting tired and my legs were making mistakes. A face plant with the food pack and the canoe would not be a good thing. To reduce the chance of falling I lightened my load by taking only the food or the canoe and leapfrogging to the lake. Either that portage is getting longer or I am getting older. The ½ gallon of water was sufficient but I would have used more if I had it available. I took the camp site on the south side of the lake. I drug a lure through the water on my way to camp but no luck. As soon as the tarp and hammock were set up it was time for a bath and rinse the mud off the clothes. The rock by the fire pit makes a nice place to throw the wet clothes until they could be hung up to dry. The garter snake that resides in the crack in the fireplace rock did not seem to like having wet clothes thrown over his home. He retreated back in the crack as the clothes were retrieved.
    I have a summer sleeping bag to cover the top of me and it was a little cool last night so I have the poncho available to cover the bag with if I get cold. After having my under quilt blown out from under me so many times in Opasquia I am now hanging it from the tarp ridge line and using prussic knots to hold the supports out at the ends of the tarp. This holds the under quilt up under me much better eliminating the drafty spots and keeping my under side warm. There were no bugs today not even on the portage. I crawled in the hammock at about 8:00 and went to sleep.
    10-15-14 I woke up several times during the night for nature call but fell back asleep fairly fast. It was 7:00 when I got up. With pan cakes for breakfast I feel good. Today will be a layover and maybe tomorrow also. I did some camp chores cleaned up some trash and hung my food bag. At about 10:00 I headed out of camp to do some exploring. First was to explorer the creek headed toward Zephira Lake. The creek is open to paddle for the first 600 Ft. then it is blocked by several boulders. I got out on the boulders and found a path around on the right side to a small pond above the boulders. I decide to leave the rest of the exploring of this creek for tomorrow. The island campsite on Cache has been cleared and has places for 2 maybe 3 tents and a small but nice landing. The campsite on the west side of the lake north of the river has been cleared and has a tent pad back in the woods and another near the water. Today was a mostly sunny with varying winds. The fishing has been nothing not even a northern. Supper is spaghetti with sausage in the sauce. It has been a day to recover from the last 2 days and my body needs it. Blueberries are thick and dead ripe and there are a few ripe red raspberries. My legs are sore to the touch but no cramps. As I crawl into the hammock at about 8:00 the wind is coming up and the sky is darkening. Within a minute of two of getting in the hammock a light sprinkle starts to fall.
    10-16-14 Up at about 5:30 and out of camp at about 7:00. Off to explorer the creek that leads up towards Zaphira. Following the path I found yesterday getting on the little pond went without a hitch. The little creek starts off as small but paddelable. A short distance up the creek and creek banks rise up on both sides of the creek with the spacing between the banks being too narrow for my double paddle. There are a few deer flys which can be expected on moving water but not bad. Every 20 Yds. there is a beaver dam or a log or stump blocking navigation on the stream. I realize that I cannot turn my canoe around. It is going to be difficult to back my canoe out of this creek. I come to a wide place in the creek. It is decision time! If I spend the day exploring this creek and find an area that need more exploring as a possible rout to Zaphira then there will not be enough time make a loop through Kawnipi. I decide to go to Kawnipi. From where I am I can see tree closing in making a narrow spot in the valley. After that the valley appears to head in a more easterly direction.
    ZaphiraTracks.JPG


    I will leave that exploration for another day or someone else. I am headed back to camp to pack. I notice that my maps do not show the portages on the Cache River. I copy from the Adventure map to my McKenzie map as accurately as I can the locations of the portages. After packing up I head across the lake to the Cache River. I enter the mouth of the river at 10:00. I am going to try to mark waypoints on my gps at the ends of the portages on the river. As I plan today I assume there will be a gentle current helping my progress making the miles go by.
    478JPG

    As it turns out the first few miles of the river are weed choked and when you stop paddeling the canoe stops. Eventually the river becomes more of a typical river with sets of rapids and then low current sections. Most of the time the current is not detectable. Some of the young Canadian geese can not fly yet. They will try to swim and stay ahead of me but when I get near they dive and do not come up till I am gone. One of the portages had a fire ring and a large bluberry patch to set up a tent in. It was still too early to stop for the night. This portage also had an interesting challenge in the trail.
    480jpg

    What the picture does not show very well is that there is a 6 ft deep ravine that that log is spanning. There is a log down in the ravine that allows you to cross without getting your feet wet while keeping your balance with one hand on the log that is visible. Pictured below is another obstical that slowed my progress down the river.
    481jpg

    I am using my map and gps to locate portages but I come to one area that I can not find a portage. I can see the rapids is a small one and there is calm water after the portage. I get out and walk the canoe through the rapids and get back in. Around the next bend in the river is a much larger set of rapids that looks like more rapids after that. I can see a spot on the right side of the river that looks like others have gone up the bank and on envestigating there is a portage trail. I carry my first bag across and decide that on my way back I should check to see if this trail goes up to where it is marked on the map above the rapids I walked through. On envestigating I find it goes a little ways then fades out. It is taking longer to do the river than I thought it would but my goal is to be on Kawnipi tonight. I am feeling fatigued and am being careful not to stumble. This requires that I watch the trail where my feet will land to prevent tripping. On one of the portages while carring my first pack across I come to a place where the trail goes from fairly flat to steep down hill abruptly. The trail goes down hill for about 10 feet then flattens out again with a large blueberry patch off to the right. As I start down the steep part my feet hit the ground harder making more noise. Laying in the bluberry patch about 40 feet to my right is a bear. If she would have layed there quietly I would have walked by and never known she was there but she jumped up woofed twice at me and ran off. I was walking fast and down hill and before I could get stopped she was out of sight. Travel is going well but slower than I thought it would. I start half heartly watching the shore for possible camp sight but would not have stopped unless it was a 5 star. I want to be on Kawnipi whenI get up tomorrow and I am getting to the end of the river. It is getting a little dark but I only have 2 more portages and very little paddeling and I will be on Kawnipi. Next to the last portage and I can not find it. I can see the rapids and they split and go around an island on both sides. On the right side of the island the water is mostly between rocks so I can step from rock to rock without getting my feet wet except for one spot where water is running about 4 inches deep. After scouting I decide to use the right side of the island as the portage. On my way back after my first load when I step in the section with 4 inches of water my feet go out from under me and I land back first in the 4 inches of water. The current took me down stream about 6 feet and turned me around. When I got up I was turned around and started to walk back down stream till I noticed which way the water was flowing. I said outloud to my self this is no place to get hurt. I got my second load across without incident and headed down stream. Just around the next bend I come to another set of rapids and I needed to find a way around them. I could see a place where there could be a portage on the right side although the landing was poor. If this was the portage it was on the wrong side of the river. When I got my gear unloaded and the canoe safely out of the water I double checked my map. Things did not look correct and it was so dark in the woods I could not tell if this was a portage on not. I had turned the light on my GPS off to save batteries and I could not remember how to turn it on. I could not read my GPS with my flashlight. There were 2 trees within 20 foot of that spot that would make good hammock trees. So that is where I spent the night. My clothes are wet and dirty so I put on my dry ones and went to bed. Here I am buck naked changing clothes at the 9:15 PM (when the bugs are always bad ) on a river bank (where the bugs are always bad ) in the woods (where the bugs are always bad ) where there is no breeze and there are NO mosquitos!
    8-17-14 It got chilly last night and I put my raincoat and poncho over me to stay warm. When I got up I could see I was not on a portage trail. With the GPS it was easy to see where I was and what I had done wrong. The portage was up the river from here past the rapids I fell on and around a corner in the river. It was easy for me to bushwhack around the rapids I was next to and put back in the river across from where I would have put in if I were using the portage. A short distance down strean and I came to the last portage and getting my gear across went uneventful.
    483jpg

    I wanted to find a camp site on Kawnipi near the river but I found that the channel that runs from the river to the main part of Kawnipi was only 6 feet deep. As soon as I got on the main part of Kawnipi I started trolling and caught 2 bass which went on the stringer. I ended up on a campsite on a penisila coming off of the east side of Kasie Island. After a Bass breakfast I went for a swim. Could not get the dirt out of the back of my shirt and undershirt where I landed on my back yesterday. Got my wet gear out to dry and fixed a meal for 2 and ate it and this camp site has a huge loaded blueberry patch. I am well on my way to eating a quart of blueberries. I saw people paddle past my canp site today we waved so they saw me to. That is the first people since Atikokan.
    10-18-14
    Had a good night sleep and now it is pancakes for breakfast.
    487jpg

    The picture below is a close up of a spot in the picture above.
    485jpg

    Would you believe I brought dried blueberries to go in my pancakes! After breakfast and a few more blueberries I was off to do some exploring. First on the list is checkout a possible portage to Lemay. I followed a path about 200 feet toward Lemay then I came to a pile of trees blown across the trail and decided to head back. Once back on Kawnipi I checked out a campsite on an island and found it to be nice. I put on a diving lure and started to troll my way back to Kasie Island and in 40 feet I had a nice sized eater walleye. That is all the fish I need so he got dressed and I put the fishing gear away. I spent the rest of the day exploring the west side of Kasie and islands north of there. I ate the walleye along with my regular supper while setting under my tarp. It is misting too hard to set out but not hard enough to drip off of my tarp. From my tarp I watch mother take the little one out to learn the neighborhood.
    494jpg

    I spent the evening exploring the island and playing with my camera. Today was overcast all day with no rain but some periods of heavy mist but as evening set in it started to sprinkle. When I brushed my teeth the spit was blue but my urine is not blue yet so I have not eaten too many blue berries. I saw 5 canoes way down the lake and just before sunset 2 canoes came by the campsite looking for a camp. I told them about the camp site I had checked out. First people I have talked to since 8-12-14. Again tonight there are no mosquitos. This is an environmental disaster. All the mosquitos are dead?!?
    8-19-14 I packed up and headed for Alice Lake. The last time I went through here I went through Montgomery but this time I plan on doing the river rout. While unloading at the portage into Shelley I slipped and scraped my shin. I need to start putting duct tape there too. The creek up into Alice was weed choked and took longer than I thought it would but it was early afternoon when I got to Alice. I took the island camp site with the big pine. The trees were thick and there was very little breeze. After I set up camp I went fishing and exploring. I dub this 40 Ft northern lake. That is every 40 foot of trolling catches one 30 inch northern. I found one campsite on a high hill on the south side of the lake which I would have rather been in but it was too much work to move. The south camp had a bad landing and very little cover and would not be a good spot for a storm. Today has been overcast with mist off and on all day but as I return to camp the sun is starting to peak through. I had planned on having a layover here but with the fishing and campsite that does not enthuse me the plan has changed to move on tomorrow. This campsite has mosquitos. Environmental disaster averted.

    8-20-14 I think I have had enough blueberries, not that I have started peeing blue but I have started planting blueberry seeds at an accelerated rate. Out of camp at about 8:00 and headed for the portage to the north. I do not think I saw any one yesterday but today on the little portage between Bonhomme and Sauvage I met a family. There was a Mom and Dad in one canoe and two college age girls in another. We discussed portages in both directions and were on our way. Once on the B_Chain there were many more people. On the portage into Bisk I met a family with 2 children under 10. I was ahead of them as I cane around a corner into the next portage and there was a cow moose standing at the portage. I stopped paddling and let the current pull me back around the corner. The Moose moved across and up the river so I went ahead and portaged. When I returned for my second load the family was across the river watching the moose. After I finished the portage I got out my fishing gear and put on a deep diver. As I trolled past the islands north of the portage I caught a nice eater walleye. After dressing the eye I set up camp at a sand beach campsite. It had a steep rock wall behind it so there was little breeze and it had bugs and ground squirrels. If I sat my plate down to take a drink they were in my plate. They got in one of my bags that was open and started eating nuts that were in there for my snack. The only place that was safe was out on the sand where the eagle could keep the little devils at bay. I have suspended my day pack and my food pack about 6 Feet above the ground so to keep from getting holes chewed in them. After a swim, supper and a little exploring around the camp I took my stool out on the sand and watched the sunset.
    499jpg

    After the sunset and before bed I made one last trip to the woods only to see this go running down the trail. I stopped to do what I came for and it came running back to see why I was not following.
    504Fix.JPG

    8-21-14 In the middle of last night the sky was very clear and no clouds. This morning there were some clouds. During breakfast the mosquitos were bad and I got out 2 mosquito coils and lit them. They did a good job of keeping the skeets away. Today I went exploring and fishing. I just made a small loop down to the south shore then west up to Emerald Island. From there I went north along the island then back to camp. On the way back to camp on a rock shoal was a nest of Bonaparte seagulls (I think) that did not like me anywhere near their nest. By midafternoon I was back in camp. I ate a big meal and did some repacking so would be ready to travel tomorrow. I took my stool out on the beach to watch the sunset but it started to rain so I moved under the tarp. While setting under the tarp I watched momma loon teaching her one chick to fish. They were a ways off so I used my camera to zoom in.
    509jpg
    Momma loon came up with a fish hanging out of her mouth. Baby swam over to momma and took hold of the fish but momma did not let go. The momma would dive dragging baby under water then baby would come up with a fish in its mouth and eat it.
    8-22-14 Had breakfast and out of camp at about 8:00. There was a light breeze out of the east. I want to fish the west side of the island that is east of Emerald Island. I troll up along the island until I get to the north end then turn east and head for French Lake. The wind is not very hard but there is a lot of open water ahead to build waves. There are just a few whitecaps. I probably should have followed the south shore for the wind protection but the way I came it put me in the middle of the lake. I know the later in the day it gets the more wind there is likely to be. I put the fishing pole down and started swinging the double blade to get down the lake before the waves got too big for my little canoe. The wind did come up but the distance for the waves to build was shrinking and although there were whitecaps all the way in the waves never got any bigger. The new showers at French Lake were appreciated.
    I did a little sole searching on the paddle in, trying to decide what kind of trip I should be doing. On this trip I slept over 10 hours in a single night recovering from a hard previous day. At 68 years old maybe I should do a more laid back trip with no long portages or long days. Naaaa.
    Last edited by MagicPaddler; 10-12-2014 at 18:14.

  2. #2
    Senior Member hawghangar's Avatar
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    Great photos... thanks for sharing the experience.

  3. #3
    Member ScooterB's Avatar
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    Thanks for taking us along. I just got back from the BWCA last month and your trip report brought back some wonderful memories.

  4. #4
    Senior Member 2ply's Avatar
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    Looks like a great time. Nice to see all the wildlife. Glad you were able to get a few fish as well.
    Everyone ought to believe in something....I believe I'll go set up the hammock!

  5. #5
    Member Sporto's Avatar
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    A wonderful report and pictures. Thanks for sharing!

  6. #6
    Senior Member hikenbike's Avatar
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    Excellent sunset photo!

  7. #7
    Chard's Avatar
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    Great trip report and photos! You've got to be careful on those solo trips!!! Make sure you get back to share the story!
    Last edited by Chard; 10-11-2014 at 23:40.
    Survival is about getting out alive, Bushcraft is about going in to live - Chard (aka Forest-Hobo)

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  8. #8
    Slowanderer's Avatar
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    This has to be one of the best trip reports I have ever read!
    Thanks so much for sharing your trip. Wonderful.

  9. #9
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    Thank you all for the comments. It is good to know that others enjoy the report. Several commented on the picture so I would like to note that they were taken with a camera that I carry in my shirt pocket. It is a Panasonic Lumix DMC-ZS40. I carry it in a SeaToSummit 1L dry bag. I have abandon carrying a monocular because my camera gives me a better view of distant objects. Other than 2 pictures (sunset and grouse) all the pictures were taken with the camera in the point and shoot (IA Intelligent Auto) mode.

  10. #10
    Senior Member sidneyhornblower's Avatar
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    Great photos, terrific description, I'm envious!
    "...the height of hammock snobbery!"

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