Triplogs / Triplog#23 / Days 3&4 / Day 5 / Days 6&7 / Day 8 / Day 9
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 9
It was another fantastic morning in Algonquin, when we broke camp early and were on our way. There was a light fog on the river and did much to dampen the heat of the August sun. The conditions were perfect, here out of anywhere else we had been, we expected to see moose galore. By 7:30am we had reached the end of the 1075m portage, and launched onto the longest stretch of the Little Madawaska river. Unbelievably at the beginnings of this stretch, we passed by many truck tires, that had been thrown into the river. We had picked up some garbage along our trip, there was alot on the site on Philip Lake, mainly homemade fishing gear remnants., but it was just impossible to lug tires around! Here the river began to deepen and widen. This section of the river is quite beautiful, and would like to paddle through it again. Derek was in the bow that morning, and coming around one bend he exclaimed, "Smell that?", "moose, nearby!". Well not 10 seconds later a young bull moose came into view, feeding in the swampy land up from the banks of the river. Now I could smell the moose, a musky smell. It was incredible, how Derek could smell the moose before we saw it. Tripping with Derek, certainly was fun, and even more importantly, I was learning alot from him, his skills as an outdoors-man, were exceptional to my own, and I felt privileged to be tripping with Derek.
Old remains of dam
Bull Moose on the Little Madawaska river
I had learned some paddle strokes, cooking techniques, simple camping tricks and tips(I'll never use a flashlight again, headlamps rule!) and now recognizing the scent of a moose. Derek in turn was able to learn one thing from me. Cleaning dishes and such in the bush, the proper way, so as not to pollute the lake. I was quite religious about this, and after a fashion it is easy and becomes second nature. Derek had no qualms about this and was enthusiastic about learning such things, as was I. That's what the trip was all about, enjoying The Park, while learning and experiencing new areas of The Park. The young bull became wary and moved off as we passed him. Less than 15 minutes later, we came around another bend, and seemingly out of nowhere, a cliff face popped up in front of us. Neither of us had expected to see the cliff along this river and was a real treat to see. Ten minutes later another moose was seen, then 5 minutes more, 2 more moose, as they disappeared into the forest.
The Madawaska between the 1075m & 3565m portages
is a long and beautiful stretch of river
A nice surprise: Cliffs on the Little Madawaska
By 9:am we had arrived at the 3565m portage to Radiant Lake. We both felt good, it was early and we took a small break to load up on some GORP and fruit bars before setting off on the long portage. About 30m in there is the remnants of a huge dam on the river, you can even walk across it if you dare, although I must warn you, there isn't a hospital around for miles! The first 150m or so is very rugged, however after that the trail becomes very flat and is easy to follow, there is also some nice falls to view after the dam, about 200m in along the portage. There is only one point in the trail where there is a steep descent and ascent of about 20m, beyond that the portage is great! At one point along the trail, I smelt that musky moose smell again, and so did Derek, but no moose was seen and we continued on. We also tried to single carry the portage, given the length of the portage we thought we'd give it a try. Well we didn't last long, it was just to awkward. Derek even tried carrying his barrel and the canoe at once. He did this for a few hundred meters before setting the canoe down. Derek offered me, to try carrying the barrel. I tried and within in 50 meters put the damn thing down. I didn't like it much, it had a tendency to roll across my spine...ouch! Derek had confided in me that so far on the trip he was carrying most of the weight, and yes he was right, his barrel was much heavier than my pack. So Derek won the He-Man of the trip award. We completed one pass with the packs only and headed back to do the second with just the canoe. Again 2 of us portaging the canoe was just too awkward, we kept trying different positions, and for the most part were somewhat successful, but it was damn uncomfortable, most likely cause of the height difference between Derek and myself, we just couldn't achieve a happy medium. Derek fed up or determined, took the canoe by himself, and proceeded his He-man jaunt down the trail portaging the canoe alone, while I trailed along. About 8/10th's of the way thru the portage we crossed a logging road, and within 10 min. or so reached the end of the portage. We had to drag the canoe across the river past a sandbar, till we reached suitable water depth to launch. It was 12:20 when Derek and I, submerged our sweat-soaked and skeeter bitten bodies into the cool and rushing waters of the river. What a relief! Back on the river there were a few difficult looking obstructions to pass, but each one was easily passable by jumping out of the canoe and passing over a log. This happened only twice. One a log, the other a beaver dam. Alder made it's reappearance again, and followed us all the way to Radiant Lake. I naturally became apprehensive, but again my apprehension was unfounded, as the river was not blocked, and travel was easy. Eventually we came to an old railway bridge where many years earlier, trains used to rumble alongside the Petawawa river thru The Park. Underneath was the only live beaver dam we had encountered on the Madawaska. It was quite extensive, and once we passed it, Radiant Lake came into view, it was 12:45pm. Two minutes later we stopped at the outlet of the River onto Radiant Lake, and got out to stretch our legs and soak in the view. Radiant is a large oval shaped lake, with long gentle sloping surrounding hills. We paddled along the north shore passing the first few sites. There was a motorboat on the lake, and by the bubbling of the motor we heard, the boat was wallowing in shallow water. Eventually the motorboat made it over to a beach with no campsite on it, and looked to be the best beach on the entire lake.
The boat's occupants got out and began to swim the area of the fantastic looking beach. They were most likely cottagers as there was a few cottages on Radiant Lake. We continued east along the lake, heading for what I hoped to be a great site. The easternmost site on the lake, a little west of the site at the narrows, at the outlet of Radiant Lake. We thought there was someone occupying the site at the narrows, so we stayed away, in fact it was a family illegally( I say illegal, because there is no designated campsite there) camping on the other side of the narrows next to the road, just past a road bridge that crossed the Petawawa, as it drained out of Radiant Lake.
Derek drowning his sweat
It's not as bad as it looks
What seemed like a full kilometer from the site, though it probably was only 300 or 400 meters, we had to get out and walk, as the water became too shallow. Within in 100 meters of the eastern most campsite, I hit the white sand(it was white hot too!), hobbling like a 90 year old man, my feet were on fire, and the heat of the sand was radiating into my face. Derek and I both made it to the site. It was nice I liked it, but the walk to and from the water to a point at which we could paddle, would've been death fer sure, it was a most inconvenient arrangement. We slogged back out to where the water was deep enough, and paddled over the next site west of us. The site was quite nice and open, and loaded with red pine, and very sandy. The beach wasn't much, very sandy with lots of stones, and the shallows were mucky and weedy, not sandy. Enough! We set camp at around 2:00pm.
Alder wasn't a problem anywhere on the Little Madawaska
Radiant is a silly Lake: Extensive shallow zones
It almost seemed to me I was on an ocean beach...the tide had gone out!
By 6pm, we had dinner and were settled in for a 3 nite stay on Radiant, because of our altered route we had arrived on Radiant one day early. This didn't seem to be a problem as we saw only one other party camped on the lake. A group of kids(at least 5 canoes) from Camp Pathfinder(out of Source Lake) had come up the Petawawa river and camped one or two sites west of us, out of our sight. There was lots of wood in the forest behind our site, and that night we had a great fire and a nice breeze coming off the lake, The bugs were troublesome for a bout 30 min. or so then they soon disappeared. Copious amounts of booze was consumed that night around the fire!
Somehow these kids found deep enough water to paddle