Powell River Canoe Route - Day 3 Nth Nanton Lake to Horseshoe Lake

Day 3 Thursday

We woke up to sunny skies for our day on the lake.  Today was all on the water.  

Because the water level was so low we had to carry the canoes down a dry creek bed and carefully pick our way up the shallow creek into Nanton Lake.  

It was a beautiful morning, the lake was like glass with the loons diving and calling to each other. This was probably our best morning on the water.

Nanton Lake was quite small and opened up into Horseshoe Lake which was at least a kilometre wide and 7.5 km long. Big lakes are harder to canoe as it feels like you are not really making any progress. If you can see the end of the lake it never seems to get any closer. We just buckled down and kept paddling, making an outcropping of rock in the distance out next goal until we finally rounded a bend that signified that we were close to the camp site. It was also nice to get out of the headwind and chop. 

The water level was so low that the ramp was suspended at one end in mid air about three feet over the dock. We hauled our gear out and climbed up to inspect the campsite. This was to be our last campsite on this trip and it was our first campsite 16 years ago when we did this trip before but from south to north. It looked different as the water level is so much lower this time.

We decided that it would be a good idea to get our canoes the 1.2km portage over to Lois Lake now rather than make the two trips in the morning. So, after a delicious and satisfying lunch of Ichi Ban noodles we loaded the canoes back on to our aching and bruised shoulders and lugged then over to Lois.

The wet weather the day before had woken up the mosquitoes. Up until now we had hardly seen any and Barry had been blue to sleep in the vestibule. Not tonight. The mozzies were munching on our knees and ankles over dinner.   Nice evening. Met some Germans had Apple tea and hit the sack