Post by mitchell on May 23, 2011 12:50:45 GMT -5
With so many rivers congested with people on the May long weekend, I yearned for a river of peace and quiet. A couple years back, I hiked from Clear lake to the Pocologan River. Since then, I've wanted to head back to this river with a canoe on my back.
Ryan Ward and I set out from Red Rock lake around noon on Saturday morning. Showers and wind greeted us as we made our way into Sparkes lake. I could see and hear a motorized craft in the distance and hoped they were not going to take our planned campsite. We caught up with them at the portage from Sparkes to Clear lake. They informed us they had just caught a salmon and a few trout and told us Clear lake has many large trout and a few salmon as well. We told them of our plans to stay the night at Clear lake and portage over to Porcupine lake on the Pocologan River. He mentioned that a group paddles this river from Pocologan lake every spring. I found this hard to believe as the aerial maps show this as just a trickle from the headwaters to Porucpine Lake, nevertheless I felt reassured that others have paddled this river lately. We made it to our campsite on Clear lake early afternoon and relaxed around a camp fire as the cold winds blew in our direction, trying our best to lighten up our load for the portage in the morning.
The next morning started off cool but the winds had diminished overnight. Ryan caught a large "chubb" before we ate breakfast, loaded up and made our way across the lake to the portage trail. Other than the first few meters, the trail was in good shape relativley flat for this 800 meter portage. It took us two trips to get to Porcupine Lake around noon on Sunday. The sun was making its way through the clouds as we arrived on the bottom of Porcupine mountain. The river looked lower that I had hoped but a bit of dragging wouldn't be that bad, after all the river is mostly deadwater with a few rapids connecting them....how bad could it be??
The map showed some upcoming rapids after our first deadwater, which I figured we would have to drag through...and drag we did. The river looked as though it had just ended, with large cedar trees blocking the small trickle of water. We were forced to wade through and carry over the jumbled mess of tangled blowdowns for about 100 meters before reaching the next deadwater. Here Ryan was able to land another nice "chubb". I thought we were through the worst of it when the deadwater abruptly ended again. This time the river divided into 2 or 3 small sreams with even more blowdowns to carry over. Again we dragged and struggled through interconnected cedar trees and limbs to the end of the so called rapid. It now occured to me that the gentleman who told us of previous paddlers was terribly misinformed. He was obvioulsy talking about another river in the area as it was clear to Ryan and I that no one has paddled this river in many years. After two more simliar "rapids" were behind us we stopped for lunch. We were both getting tired and sore from man handling the loaded canoes through the jungles of the Pocologan. We hoped the worst was through as we pushed off from shore to enter another rapid. This rapid truly was a rapid but was too low so we had to line down through the ravine. Lining was a treat compared to what we had just gone through. There was some very interesting rapids that a creek boater would really enjoy in high water. There were several drops of about 4 feet or more through this narrow 100m rapid. We found a suitable campsite shortly after this and were pleased to call it a day.
In total travelled only 9 kms in 6 hours. The fried "chubb" was a great way to end the day. Although it was a rough day I still quite enjoyed the fact that we were most likely to first to run this river in many years. Neither one of us complained and made the most with what we had to work with. We arose early Monday morning and paddled the remaining 6 kms to our take out without incident.
Of course I would be a fool to want to paddle this again, but I am happy I was able to paddle it and will stop wondering what lies ahead on the Pocologan. It will be a memorable long weekend paddling trip.
Ryan Ward and I set out from Red Rock lake around noon on Saturday morning. Showers and wind greeted us as we made our way into Sparkes lake. I could see and hear a motorized craft in the distance and hoped they were not going to take our planned campsite. We caught up with them at the portage from Sparkes to Clear lake. They informed us they had just caught a salmon and a few trout and told us Clear lake has many large trout and a few salmon as well. We told them of our plans to stay the night at Clear lake and portage over to Porcupine lake on the Pocologan River. He mentioned that a group paddles this river from Pocologan lake every spring. I found this hard to believe as the aerial maps show this as just a trickle from the headwaters to Porucpine Lake, nevertheless I felt reassured that others have paddled this river lately. We made it to our campsite on Clear lake early afternoon and relaxed around a camp fire as the cold winds blew in our direction, trying our best to lighten up our load for the portage in the morning.
The next morning started off cool but the winds had diminished overnight. Ryan caught a large "chubb" before we ate breakfast, loaded up and made our way across the lake to the portage trail. Other than the first few meters, the trail was in good shape relativley flat for this 800 meter portage. It took us two trips to get to Porcupine Lake around noon on Sunday. The sun was making its way through the clouds as we arrived on the bottom of Porcupine mountain. The river looked lower that I had hoped but a bit of dragging wouldn't be that bad, after all the river is mostly deadwater with a few rapids connecting them....how bad could it be??
The map showed some upcoming rapids after our first deadwater, which I figured we would have to drag through...and drag we did. The river looked as though it had just ended, with large cedar trees blocking the small trickle of water. We were forced to wade through and carry over the jumbled mess of tangled blowdowns for about 100 meters before reaching the next deadwater. Here Ryan was able to land another nice "chubb". I thought we were through the worst of it when the deadwater abruptly ended again. This time the river divided into 2 or 3 small sreams with even more blowdowns to carry over. Again we dragged and struggled through interconnected cedar trees and limbs to the end of the so called rapid. It now occured to me that the gentleman who told us of previous paddlers was terribly misinformed. He was obvioulsy talking about another river in the area as it was clear to Ryan and I that no one has paddled this river in many years. After two more simliar "rapids" were behind us we stopped for lunch. We were both getting tired and sore from man handling the loaded canoes through the jungles of the Pocologan. We hoped the worst was through as we pushed off from shore to enter another rapid. This rapid truly was a rapid but was too low so we had to line down through the ravine. Lining was a treat compared to what we had just gone through. There was some very interesting rapids that a creek boater would really enjoy in high water. There were several drops of about 4 feet or more through this narrow 100m rapid. We found a suitable campsite shortly after this and were pleased to call it a day.
In total travelled only 9 kms in 6 hours. The fried "chubb" was a great way to end the day. Although it was a rough day I still quite enjoyed the fact that we were most likely to first to run this river in many years. Neither one of us complained and made the most with what we had to work with. We arose early Monday morning and paddled the remaining 6 kms to our take out without incident.
Of course I would be a fool to want to paddle this again, but I am happy I was able to paddle it and will stop wondering what lies ahead on the Pocologan. It will be a memorable long weekend paddling trip.