Triplogs / Triplog#23 / Days 3&4 / Day 5
Cedar L(IN) - Petawawa R - Catfish L - Perley L - Burntroot L - Lake La Muir - Hogan L - Philip L - Little Madawaska R - Radiant L - Petawawa R - Cedar L(OUT)
Day 5
Around 4am I was awoken to the sound of thunder. I quickly got up and ran outside. Sure enough, there was lightning in the distance, and hurried to put my fly on my tent. Dogbyte was up too, we walked around for a few minutes, in the still air of an Algonquin nite, seeing a few flashes of lightning and the boom of distant thunder. Soon it started to rain, but it only lasted 10 min. or so. I drifted back to sleep. I woke up about 6:15am and stepped out of the tent to a heavy fog. A few loons were calling crazily along the water...guessing the fog was throwing them off somehow. Among the cries of the loon, I heard 'chanting'. Yes, chanting of the religious type. Derek was reminded of that cough drop commercial and we started having fun, by calling into the fog. 'Reeee-coLA'...it was funny! You had to be there.
It was chilly in the fog, but it's beauty was worth the chill
Under a beautiful foggy late July morning,
Derek does his daily ritual morning wash
Derek at the stern as we head for Red Pine Bay
Just before 9am we hit the water(Derek in the stern), this day was moving day, we were heading over to Hogan Lake. Only 2 portages stood in our way, so there was much more paddling than portaging to be done, hurrah! We paddled thru Red Pine Bay, and arrived at the 735m portage to Lake La Muir, just after 10am. The trail has some climbing in the beginning, the portage is kinda rugged too, but for the most part it is a gentle downhill swing into Lake La Muir, which I find odd, 'cause 'La Muir is higher in elevation than Burntroot. The fog had burned off on Burntroot Lake, by the time we disembarked, and on Lake La Muir, we had a big blue sky, with some white puffy clouds and a bright sun, as we paddled across the expanse of Lake La Muir. It is a very big lake, especially since we were paddling it length wise. for the size of the lake, there are very few campsites on it, less than ten. We noticed only 3 of them(that were visible) as being occupied. The water as we crossed the lake was dead calm, and we were lucky to have such weather, I know!
Fellow trippers along the portage to Lake La Muir
The east bay on Lake La Muir:
One of many nests on this small island were found
A young Blue Heron was found nesting in a cedar tree
We entered a bay that is at the east end of the lake, before Lake La Muir gives way to the Little Madawaska river. This bay was a bit odd in my mind, as the water was very shallow, we made progress with no problems. The reason behind this oddity was that the entire bay, was filled with well over a meter of fine silted mud. We were scraping bottom most of the way, but the mud was so fine, that the top layer must've been a foot thick of silt. Dipping our paddles into the water, the paddles went down almost as far was we could go, without falling out of the canoe. I would not like to have fallen out here, I can imagine it'll be like Algonquin's version of quicksand. We approached a small island, and landed, and as we did so, we discovered the island was a nesting ground for Great Blue Herons, and other species of birds as well, noticeable by a great many varying sizes of egg shells and abandoned nests. After this we had a few snacks and pushed on, and landed at the 685m portage to Hogan Lake at 12:55pm. A party of 3 canoes passed us going towards La Muir, as we approached the portage. It was to be only the second party of active canoes we had seen that day. By 1:25pm we launched onto the Little Madawaska River. I was excited here, there was tall grasses, Pickerel plants everywhere, and lilies here and there, if anywhere, I had expected to see moose here. However it was the middle of the day, and no moose showed, no nothing.
Getting ready to launch onto the Little Madawaska leading to Hogan Lake
Hogan Lake welcomed us with calm waters
By 1:50pm, we emerged onto Hogan Lake. I thought Lake La Muir was big, but Hogan Lake was huge!
I'm glad Derek was with me, something about this lake made me feel small. I'm not sure I'd ever want to paddle it solo. Interestingly enough though, the water was almost dead calm, it certainly was turning out to be a good day to paddle. We paddled towards the island with two campsites on it(located at each end).
To our disappointment, they were both occupied, somehow I was hoping the party of 3 canoes we passed on La Muir, was leaving one of these sites vacant for us, not the case. We paddled and landed at the next site behind the occupied island. The site had a swampy landing, complete with tall grasses and reeds. The site itself was open and highly exposed to the sun, however there was a area of shade, but I didn't like the site, due to the swampy waterfront we had. Thinking of this I voiced my concerns to Derek, he liked the site, but agreed to move on, but not before investigating the surrounding area a bit. There seemed to be a trail leading from the site, towards the east, within close proximity of the Cliffs. There is a huge cliff face that Hogan Lake is well known for, and it is well worth the trip to see. We did not find a path to the top, as the trail seemed to die as it became tangled up in thick bush. We got back into the canoe, and paddled over to the cliff face. A huge rock pile litters the waterline below the cliff face, boulders the size of houses occupy the shoreline. Trees seeming ready to fall over, cling with strong roots to what soil remains in cracks in the rock face. It's amazing to see at what lengths red pine will go to, to survive, but alas, in the end, gravity wins every time, as the huge boulders at the cliff's bottom so proudly display.
Next we headed over to the 2 sites that sit northeast of the cliff face, on a point. both sites were quickly passed up. They had very short gravel beach landings and we surrounded by thick forest. We were beginning to get picky. Derek and I were tired and the water betrayed not a ripple, as we both hauled in the paddles and laid back and drifted eastward along Hogan's waterway. It was 3:15pm. "where to now?", Derek asked. "Parks Bay, I guess", I replied. Ok, then...rest time was over. we came upon a site on the north shore, but just by looking at it, didn't like it at all, and kept going. The next one was on the north side on a point, right on the edge of the entrance into Parks Bay. We landed there at 3:40pm. It was an interesting site, but again, I had misgivings about it. Derek didn't seem to mind this, and I think he actually was becoming used to my discriminating site selection process, after all, so far we were 2 for 2(with a little help from Bo!). Derek, examined a site across from us. It was on the east shore all by itself, and it had a beach. "There, let's go!", Derek said.
The cliffs on Hogan Lake
A closer view of the cliffs
Off we went. Within 15 minutes we landed at a nice site, complete with a sandy beach. Derek loved the site, and he declared the beach was his, as he was going to pitch his tent in the sand. I looked around, the forest had a spooky look to me. I wasn't so hot about this site as much as he was, but we were there and I felt that there was to be no more pushing for better sites. This one was good enough and it was time to settle down and relax. After we went for a walk exploring the shoreline, I was bothered to see several leeches swim by. Derek bravely grabbed one from the water, and threw it on a rock, and beat the hell out of it with another rock, somehow the damn thing survived, and Derek gave up his attempts to kill the ugly things(man they were tough), and tossed it into the forest. I wasn't going to join in his attempts to rid the world of one more leech, but I wasn't the least bit sorry to see the thing disappear into the forest either. Since there were leeches there, I was very hesitant to go into the water. If I don't see leeches, then I don't worry, but as soon as I do, there's no swimming for me. It's funny really. I've had leeches on me before, and they're harmless, most of the time you can't even feel them, but for me it's just the anticipation of them lurking out there, ready to latch onto me that puts the fear into me. The sand in the shallows had many clams scattered throughout the sandy shallows, most of them had left trails in the sand, as they moved along the bottom. I always wear sandals around clams, as I constantly worry an upturned sharp edge will slice my foot open. We had a great fire under a great sunset that night and hit the hay early, it had been another long day, under the sun.
Not satisfied with this site, Derek scopes out another one
Sunset on Hogan Lake(Parks Bay)