25 More Sleeps to go!

The rain has set in and we are on the countdown to departure!  One week until school starts and then it is off to Kona!  Ahhh!  One thing at a time.......

Powell River Canoe Route - Day 4 Louis Lake and Pick Up!

Day 4 Friday

Our last day and it was a gorgeously overcast day.  Perfect for our 9.5 km canoe out. 

The scenery was completely surreal. It looked like a dead tree graveyard and it was kinda eerie.  The water level was so low that we had to manoeuvre around stumps and dead trees.  

We finally got out to the main lake and got to the island where we had a swim and a snack break. From the island we were able to text Christy and made arrangements for a pick up in about an hour and a half. 

Our final paddle was hard as the winds picked up and it was pretty choppy. The kids paddled hard and we got to our pick up point right on time.  We lunched at Skeeter Jacks with Darren and Cindy and caught the 4:30 ferry out of Saltery Bay.  

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

Powell River Canoe Route - Day 2 South Dodd Lake to Nth Nanton Lake

Day 2 Wednesday

So I actually felt pretty safe that night.  Our food was hung using the pulley system that each campsite had, we had set up the tent in a pretty flat spot so I didn't have some giant roots digging into my chest and we weren't on a slant like the previous night.  The problem started around 5am. Rain!!!!!  

Taking shelter while we waited out the rain

It's amazing how you appreciate the small things like shelter!

By 6:30am it was really starting to come down. Of course Ryan had left his shoes and shirt outside so they were soaked but we were actually able to get all our gear packed up without anything getting totally soaked.  I had wanted to pick up some ponchos at the Dollar Store in P.R. but that didn't actually materialize so we had 1 rain jacket and a garbage bag between the 4 of us.  Luckily each of the campsites had a shelter and this particular campsite had a fairly large one so we were able to keep all of our stuff dry (except the tent of course), eat our breakfast, and wait for a break in the weather.  

The lake was like glass with steam rising off of it.  About an hour later we had the break we were waiting for.  We put on our bathing suits and life jackets and heading across Dodd to the beginning of the portage.  Just at the moment I was saying "Thank you Jesus"' the rain started up again.  We got across the lake and decided that we might as well just keep going as we were soaked and if we stopped we would just get cold.  This began a very long and miserable portage and I have to say that the kids did amazing!  They did not complain once!  We made our way to Ireland Lake which was only a 1 km paddle.  The rain continued on and off and the next portage was our longest portage yet!  It was hard but we managed to push ourselves and get to the top of Nanton Lake which was our goal for that day.  By the time we arrived the rain had stopped and we were able to dry out our tent and all our gear, wash up a bit in the creek and sit down to our Dollar store chicken teriyaki boil in the bag meal.  We ended up in our tent at 7pm exhausted, played some cards and fell asleep thankful that our hardest day was over and it looked like tomorrow was going to be clear skies!

Powell River Canoe Route - Day 1 Nth Windsor Lake to South Dodd Lake

Today was a fairly easy day, a soft start if you will as far as portaging goes.  We did a short canoe across Windsor and then had a 0.7 km portage to Dodd Lake. The portage went smoothly and Jemma and I discovered that we could fairly easily take the second canoe with me on the front and Jemma on the back. 

Switching from sandals to shoes for the portage 

Dad on one canoe - thanks Christi for the ultralight, just 52lbs

This was a huge relief to Barry because if he had to take the second canoe it would have killed him!  So we arrived at Dodd, ate our yummy lunch and had a little siesta on the dock soaking up the sun. Ryan was itching to go so we packed up our stuff, loaded the canoes and set off on the 7km paddle to the end of Dodd.  
It was a long paddle and the wind usually comes up in the afternoon so it was a bit choppy and hard going at the end.  We arrived at our camp which was called Chipmunk something or other.  We had the camp to ourselves with our very own dock.  We had our dinner of KD and Spam, swam in the crystal clear water and hit the hay!  Day 1 complete.

Powell River Canoe Route - Drop Off

Alright, here is a quick run down of the 4 day Powell River Canoe Route.  First of all you should know that the entire route is actually a 6-7 day trip.  We actually cut out the hardest parts: a long portage down a mountain from Goat Lake to Powell Lake and a 28.5 km paddle on Powell Lake.  We also went in the opposite direction that most people go. We were driven to the farthest lake, Windsor Lake and then headed south towards civilization which always feels good.

Mitchell's Canoe Rentals Facebook Page

The Powell Forest Canoe Route

Monday 6:30 pm. Drop off

Christy drops us off with our backpacks, some bunwiches we made at D&C's and 2 ultralight canoes.  We canoe to the far end of Windsor Lake to our first campsite. Jemma was in the Solitude, a modified ultralight outfitted with a kayak rudder pedal system. We set up camp, ate our dinner and the kids poked and prodded a million frogs. Our "4 man" tent actually only fits 3 of us so poor Barry ended up in the vestibule like a dog. Luckily there were no bugs so it actually was not too bad. Ryan was not really feeling 100% safe out in the wilderness and I have to say I wasn't either.  First night was not too bad.

Windsor Lake North Campsite

We are not alone!

Rest stops every 200 meters - they are like gold!