2014 Canoe Trip - Day 7

[rusty]

Day 7. Fun Type 1.5
After a bit of rain overnight the morning was windy, cool and overcast. After seeing a lot of trout on the sounder the day before Dave and I were out early to try and get onto one. We tried every trick in the book and ranged across from the campsite to the large bay opposite. There were plenty of fish on the sounder but none biting. I think we kept fishing because we could see they were down there and we didn’t want to believe we couldn’t somehow tempt them with one of our lures. We may have overdone the fishing that morning because when we got back the camp was pretty much packed and there wasn’t too much breakfast left!

Everyone was probably keen to get going since we had a long way to go into a fresh wind and Kakagi is a big lake where waves could be a problem. We got ready as quick as we could, after getting one last group portrait. The paddling demanded attention due to the headwind which always wanted to push you off line and we had keep up momentum. It seemed to take a long time before we got to a spot that was sheltered and seemed suitable for lunch. There some calm bays where we tried our luck but little was biting, someone caught a tiny perch. Lunch was definitely a welcome break and an inuksuk was erected on the point to mark the fast approaching end of our trip. It took some engineering to make one that was stable in the wind, which seemed to have really picked up.

On the water again there was a large expanse of lake to cross on the final leg. As we neared the shores again the number of cabins, boat houses and jetties grew and it was hard to get used to seeing all the signs of habitation. We pulled out at the pickup point which was a gravel boat ramp at the head of a bay next to the highway. It wasn’t raining, thankfully, and we had something to eat to fill in some time. It wasn’t long before Uncle Dave arrived to help with ferrying stuff back to Nestor Falls. He took Jon back to get his truck so while we were waiting we helped liberate a sign that would go well in Jon’s collection. It needed to be taken down anyway as it was old and represented a shameful bygone era of Canadian discrimination against the nation that came first. First in the Olympics, first in the hockey, baseball - you name it.

It was good to see Dave and Pat again and really nice to be treated to dinner back in civilization. The camp ground at the park on Caliper Lake was quiet that night, which was a relief since we were all in need of a good rest. Another amazing trip, that year in 2014. It felt hard to drive away from it all, when we were just getting in the rhythm of things and it felt like there was still so much to do, so many lakes still to see, and trophy fish still to catch. That big muskie got away this year, but not for long, eh!