"19 Days Needed" e2 - Thunderstorms and BUGS!

This is a rough go. Day four we're supposed to be a nice canoeing cake walk of a day. Not so much. And I'm only, oh I'm not even halfway. Built some pancakes today. Feeling like a pancake morning, you know. A little ganesha and the Eggoa pan. Quick work of this pancake. That was hot on my face. Chef Joe's secret recipe. Just a couple peanut M&Ms for color, you know. Just for a little color. A little birthday color surprise. a little crispy but that's okay i'm fine with that i'm fine with it oh no wasted some i'm gonna use too many too much because i don't have that much but you gotta use syrup when you eat pancakes right i spray it all over the ground too apparently oh a bite right into the red peanut it's a very nice morning had a good start left at about eight o'clock fueled up on that pancake with some caffeine tabs for my water some grape drink thing and i'm back to where i was last night over by the moving water here so i have to i know from last night i'm gonna have to paddle up a current and or wade my boat i was able to get up it last night with no gear in the boat pretty sure i can do it again now i might have to use the double blade though but either way i'd be happy not to get out of the boat but there's a bunch coming up in and outs all half the day then i got a good paddle at the end of the day it'll be a nice uh mix of a canoeing day well here it is it's not a rapid it's just swift water but still paddling up it can be tricky let's see if we can do her single blade style you can see my double you can't see my double blade in front there no trickery oh yeah we got this just adjusting the camera don't mind me current it's almost like i knew what i was doing i don't it was almost like i did this is about a minute after saw me last and i turned around a bend and all i can hear is like a raging raging rapid uh not a little paddle up one like that one i can't see it but i can sure tell by the sound bullfrogs just croaking in the back beautiful time of year beautiful time of year to be over here it'd be good fishing here but i don't really feel the need to fish so i'm on a portage now this must have been the rapids i heard last night but didn't find oh there's the portage way past the rapids that's cool cool okay okay second attempt at her i'm too bad i wish i would have done better in the first place but we got it there's the portage i'm gonna keep my feet as dry as i can for as long as i can today all right it's been another minute after that last portage which i didn't even attach the yoke for i just carried it over uh and another rapid and i cannot miss up this opportunity again for a good fishing spot so i'm gonna fish got the old crusty soft plastics on the jig still see what happens all right take two i freaking switched it up i lost that one as the first one i lost uh the jig uh but i got a blue fox number four super vibrax vibrax blue spinner guy so let's see what this pulls up probably a pike i'm gonna guess well that's pretty good has some heft to it my left hand here got him just lipped him too perfect pretty cool first cast of that guy so yeah this is good fishing take a couple more and then i'll get on my way spent a lot of time here for one pike oh i did catch a pike for one pike and one walleye oh my sunglasses are breaking they're oakley ripoffs i didn't know that when i bought them but look at i didn't think they were oakley's at all i just didn't see the rip-off o thing now the nose rubbery eyepiece thing is falling off okay i think this is a pike no another walleye nice so much for the dry feet the portage is way up a bunch of rocks again i just gotta walk it there's no sense in trying to bush ninja my way across these rocks dry with this big heavy pack it's just not not the safe way to do things as much as i like being a bush ninja i'm old feeble feeble feebly joe but we'll be all right let's go go take the first walk without the canoe I'll bring it with me All right, let's go. Now I could really put my fanny pack on and buckle my map case to the backpack And it's really, it's a 50 meter portage though, you know? I don't wanna do all that stuff. It's just, I have to get to the portage. Oh, crayfish guy, little dead crayfish. All right, let's see if we can, maybe we can bush ninja. I'm not that wet right now. rock ninja whoa slippery rock ninja okay that wasn't too bad i'm sure you can hear it behind me still it's right there i just got done that and now there's one right there i will be happy when this stretch is done it's important it's necessary to get into where i'm going and stuff and it's good fishing it's good campsites very pretty having a good time i am done getting in under the boat every two minutes though i am i'm gonna try to paddle up this one again it looks pretty shallow so i don't know yeah it's pretty shallow and rocky actually so shallow it's hard to get any purchase with the paddle i'm single blading it come on joe you can do it yeah boy yeah boy that's awesome man single bladed up the current again very happy with that it's two things i don't have to get out and mess with it and it means i'm getting better with the paddle, oops, as I soak myself, well that's cool I could for sure could have done it with the double blade if I did it with the single blade so there's hope for me yet, I mean on the next rapid or the next moving water I might not have to get out again, let's cross our fingers for old Joe, well single they call me all single, all single blade these days you know, my sling blade, no powder mate no candy powder mate, that boy my friend single blade, all single blade, that's all the old timers call me now, and yet another one, look at that, if I can't paddle up it'll just skirt through the rocks in there carrying but I'd prefer to paddle up it I don't know it looks pretty rocky again so close so close yet so far no green area it's been a few hours since left camp I'm actually very hungry for the first time on this trip so I'm going to eat my pre-made sandwich I made this morning forethought Joe they call me, uh so I got cheese salami in a mustard packet for the win, oh short, that's w1 I bought, I brought big tortillas and I cut them in half this time instead of bringing 10 small tortillas or eight small tortillas i brought large ones i thought i'd cut them in half and get double the amount of tortilla double the amount of tortilla for my money you know how about that money to tortilla ratio ratio i'm not losing my mind on day three I promise I do like mustard that will go back into my pack not into the water or on the ground I swear there we go another one here I like to kneel down to do these ones but I was already here before I realized I wasn't on my knee double blade this one I think if anything look a bit yeah I got it lots of those is now I've got to do it again but it's any easier with the double blade to be honest with you this does not help Joe Rob Bunnet double blade activated said it at the beginning of the day and it's actually turning out to be really true it is a great day i'm very happy with how today is going and uh i've only had to get out of the boat to portage twice i have lined and i've paddled my butt off up rapids and whatnot but there's one i'm coming up to right now that looks like it might be my third carry of the day because they ain't no getting off this one i might be able to line it, it looks pretty long at some point in trip, I hope to be going down river on a section, we shall see though I mapped out a rough route I asked Bruce, does this look good? He says this looks fantastic so that's the route I'm doing and I'm having fun, I'm enjoying it, it is a good route, it is uh upstream for days if there's any tree nerds like me check it out, I found some ash here in the boreal, pretty freaking cool a couple ash trees growing, one over there, one over there along in with the alders and the cedars there's a mountain ash tree right there this is my favorite type of spot for a campsite right at the end of a nice rapid good fishing opportunities good white noise to go to sleep too, I just uh I gotta check out the site still, I just lost my my good lure, my blue blue fox vibrax but no worries check it out pretty slanty, nice and breezy, keep the bugs down a grill, a table of sorts so I should say I'm not actually in Wabakimi right now I'm doing a loop underneath and I have to pass the train tracks in a day or two, uh probably day four or five I'll get back up, I've done the loop underneath and I'm going to go into the park uh after that that's why you see things like the grill and the table and stuff like that oh yeah it's not really flat at all if there is it could make it work i don't know i don't know what what to do i like oh there's a flat spot back here cool okay all right so i like the fact that there's a nice breezy spot where i'll be sitting keep the bugs down i am good with this okay change of plans that was a good campsite and after i found that awesome spot to camp nice and flat i looked around and i saw two enormous dead trees right above it i thought i've done it before what are the chances should be pretty fine but something made me look something made me look onto my in reach for the weather and for the next three days full sun beautiful except for tonight for periods at tonight it's lightning and i could just imagine those being a lightning rod so i looked at the map again this wasn't as far as i had planned on coming today anyway and there's a couple spots in between here and where i plan on going not too far but there's a beach site do my eyes deceive me is this rapid going down have i turned a corner now literally and physically and metaphorically i don't know it sure looks like dancing ponies white ponies at the top i stopped at this like halfway point between my actual campsite where i was last at this little beach see if i could camp here and i can't there's absolutely no room but i'm super glad i did because i found something very cool i came up in here to see if maybe maybe everything opened up but it certainly didn't but look at this right here this is massive dude massive massive bull moose skull pretty old getting gnawed on by whatever rodents oh that's not that old look at that thing wild looking man oh boy is that heavy i'm gonna leave it right there Very cool. Oh look at this vertebrae big So what that means with this site being not a site is that I will Paddle to my original destination today, which is another five kilometers or so. Oh, I got I got eaten by bugs in there another five kilometers or so and uh, the sky is all clear. It's all good Either way i'll pull over if I have to but it's directly into the wind for a while Then I get to turn one year ago. I was just waking up from a coma and being very dependent on bad things and Depression and not being able to get out of bed or use my hand at all. I couldn't peel a banana guys This is a very very low point for me. I couldn't peel a banana. I'm doing a month now. Maybe later I'm very very very very very blessed. I realized how big and significant this is I'm flying, got the wind right at my back, a perfect tailwind and it's breezy man I'm down a long stretch This way until I get to camp. I turned a corner and everything changed What a metaphor But I'm flying here, I feel like I'm surfing on top of waves This would not have been my first pick but I had to make a decision I had to choose a spot It's seven o'clock, time to set up. I'm pretty beat. I tried to stop a couple times already and thought better of it I'm glad I did But this spot is pretty decent and pretty flat and all I really need to do is cook I'd like to sleep, uh swim if I can, I need to write and I need to sleep Because today was every part of a real canoe trip and day. Main block going and the water's boiling Look at that, how good that looks all sauced up. I can't believe those pine needles didn't crush they're all pretty much still intact four days of being or three days of being thrown around in bags, we've got to put some cheese in because it's not gonna be good for too much longer, our black clouds all rolling up not right there where you can see, but it's probably somewhere there and there's a lot of black flies with the black clouds you can feel the storm coming in I'm trying to get ready here the black flies are swarming like crazy, I don't know if that means something too about the storm but it's really bad the worst has been this whole trip so far Trying to get all my stuff in there without leaving a thing open too much so I can get back away from that Black flies when I get in there, man. They're bad. They're really bad. Those are all inside So much for getting in and out quickly unless they just came in on my clothes I don't know but like we're whipping them for a minute now They've been whipping them for a minute and they ain't dying they're hanging on they're pretty pretty good I don't have to smoke them out or something. That's a lot, that's a lot in here. Seems like there's gonna be some weather coming in now. I've been laying here writing for like an hour, with not much happening, but now the winds are kicking up like crazy and it's been thundering. Yeah, here we go. That one made me jump. It was right there, it was super loud. I saw the lightning and I was waiting for it. I thought it was gonna be a minute, it was right away. Lightning and boom, which means it was right there. Oh, I can smell it in the air. Wild, this is a serious one. Rain's coming down now, obviously. That one was crazy, it shook me inside. It's just after six. I made a deal with myself last night that if it was calm this morning, if I got up early, I would get up and leave because I have a big paddle across a lake, which I was gonna take the shore way around because it's been choppy, but it's very calm, so I think I can just bust right across and save myself like two kilometers of travel. So we're gonna get up and get out of here, no breakfast, and we'll eat on the trail. not too bad this morning it was only it's only 6 30 now i got up and packed and got under the water in a half an hour pretty happy with that it's a nice calm day sun is shining bugs are out but it's not too bad in the water here i got a line trolling behind me with a spoon the first time i have this whole trip just to see what i can get on this big lake first real big lake i've been on there's a plane taking off right in front of me heard a plane earlier but i wonder if they dropped off canoeists dropped off somebody at a lodge so what's going on there's another one this is right after i just had that clip going there's a secondary plane i wonder if he'll tip his wings at me no wing tip no tip of the wing all right well that means there might be canoeists up here maybe not i haven't seen anyone since day one and it's day four now it's uh very hot man there's planes everywhere it's sunday today yeah sunday today maybe people are coming out but anyways it's 7 30 it's very hot i'm glad i got an early start today this dude is gonna land too right now ah behind that island i looked on the map and there's a lodge over there behind that island so that makes sense so i still may not see anybody i imagine i'll see some people when i cross the train tracks into Waikiki today or tomorrow but that's pretty good nobody since the first day in my experience day four is always a good one it's when you really get to lodge way down there looks big let's see if i can buy breakfast i'm sure they'd be all right with it i'm sure they'd be happy to sell me something i just don't know if i want to i don't know if i want to have contact and or outside assistance all right let's not go it's uh huge i see a big house big solar panel greenhouse a lodge and a bunch of outbuildings and by outbuildings they're like two or three bedroom cabins a bunch of them three four five six seven eight nine ten and a couple bigger ones too huh good to know another plane another plane is coming down behind me i didn't even know i just had the camera on paddling wild wild it's a freaking airport oh look at it smoky kind of paddle in the quiet here in the pristine ass wilderness bro i'll get away from all this very soon today or tomorrow like i said this is a popular lodge obviously easy access via train or plane probably some people are doing both to get in and out make it a bit cheaper that way skills i just got everything out of the way took my food out i made myself a sandwich it's 804 i got a sandwich fritos and a blue jaw rancher wash it all down on the left there that's all old burn a recent burn actually and then on the right is not touched the old growth you can tell the difference from here but it looks stark to me stark difference i'm literally navigating by my gps right now there's no trail at all there was a trail to start the portage i already did it once and i shall end it or start from the other side but nothing in the middle and it's very like nothing and i looked around all over this is very very thick very tangly i have to do it in three trips. I have to do three carries because I had to drop my food bag because I can't pay attention to navigating and carry all this ---- at the same time. It's too much. This is not fun. Not at all. I don't understand. And this is five times longer than any of the portages I've done yet. Not because I can't even find it, it's because it is this long going from lake to lake instead of river to river over rapids. This is a rough go. Day four was supposed to be a nice canoeing cake walk of a day not so much and i'm only oh i'm not even halfway cool all right i'm just gonna pull this thing i'm gonna go back for my gear i'm gonna pull this thing for a while oh some downright bullshit no getting around it i don't understand what happened found the portage found the blaze at the other end and i found even a start to the trail then it just peters out and the same thing on this side blaze and a couple even trail markers uh ribbon flagging tape which is not normal here usually only see flagging tape here when it's just super difficult to navigate portage and That it was and if you can trade extremely loud yelling swearing cursing and hating For four tears, and I certainly gave blood sweat and tears to that one yeah, and Tons of sweat my eyes were stinging eyes burned from stinging sweat as they say I am ready for camp that took me three and a Half hours to do that must have been like a 700 meter portage or some ---- like that Um, I'm drained. I certainly need food and I was super happy I ate that sandwich beforehand, but look at me like I'm destroyed. Is that just a super old portage? You just it's just you choose your own adventure style I don't understand. I have not had that experience here in seven trips So that's that's one to mark on the map buddy. Holy crap. I'm gonna look for a camp whether or not I stop for now or stop for good I'm uh, I'm done i'm done for now i need food and water it's one o'clock well i don't know if i would call this a good campsite like it says on the map but i do understand there's been nothing lately this is good in the simple fact that there's a good swimming rock and if you've been in this nonsense for a day or two in this little crappy portages type section um this is a good spot and i'm happy to be here i've been here for a few hours i went swimming a couple times cool off and i got everything here except for my canoe because i was just done it is coming in though so i've just been journaling writing my book and uh i'll get my canoe tomorrow it's down in the middle of the portage nobody's coming by it doesn't matter and uh even if they were it's not in the way but it's gonna rain it's gonna storm starting to sprinkle here lightning's going thunder's going seemed like it was gonna i just i couldn't get any farther today i traveled for like six or seven hours at least and it was a hard day i managed to scrounge out one spot almost big enough for this tent She's a bit saggy, so I hope the wind doesn't blow it out. We'll see. batten down the hatches Now I'm just sitting here worried about my canoe I shouldn't have left it over there. It's turned right side up and everything. I didn't know if I was actually gonna camp here. Anyways, I feel like I should go get it I'll probably wait five, 10 minutes see if the rain dies down and go get it. The whole joint's shaking. Listen, it's unsettling I can't tell you how unsettling it is not to have a bead on my only means of transportation and life out here. So I'm gonna go. I'm not gonna put a shirt on, put my rain jacket on and bust my ass to get back to the canoe and bring it over here I just won't be able to sleep without it wish me luck it's time to retire in the tent again it was all clear skies again for the second or third time today it's obviously raining now I'll go have my supper in my tent against all rules