Post by tickles on Jul 20, 2011 14:39:58 GMT -5
After booking the week off work to work around the yard Luke and I decided to plan a last minute canoe/kayak trip.
Not much runnable right now so the Chip Lakes system was a easy bet.
We went to the Coffee mill for the obligatory last meal before setting out on a trip and were shuttled to North lake and in the water by 10am Sunday.
It was a little strange that the shuttle driver had made us a tupperware container of spaghetti and thought we could use a tin of corned beef. Not wanting to offend our shuttle driver might like to use them again we very graciously accepted, even though our coolers were full and we had no place to put it. I was secretly thinking of tossing it in the lake so we just tucked it in were ever we could.
North lake was not very fun at all paddling strait into the wind and waves. It was taking so long we decided to have a quick lunch, and thought we should avoid a guilty conscience and we had a floating spaghetti meal as the sun had nicely warmed it up, it actually was quite good but we did end up losing one trusty uber hi tech spork. oh well
Grand Lake was very busy with pontoon boats. ski boats and floating tubes. The most amazing camp site was Spruce point
We were going to stay there but thought we needed to cover more ground so continued to Hayes point. There was all ready a canoe group there so we continued to the next one and it served our purposes well. Lots of lightning Sunday night but not really any rain.
We ended up doing 20.7km's that day in about 7hrs I think.
Got on the water Monday around 9ish The American Patrol boat was making steady passes by us I'm not sure why we were attracting there attention, If they had have came over I would have offered them a beer but they didn't cross the boundary line.
The portage at the Dam at the End of Grand lake was very easy. and Forest city stream was a pleasure to have a little moving water.
We decided to skip Forest city falls in order to get ahead of the group in front of us so we took the first portage on the St Croix water way map. We almost ended up portaging in the woods about 25 Meters off the real portage trail We thought we had found it and it was just over gown but it really was just walking through the woods. I'm glad we found the real one, like a minute boat ride further towards Mud falls.
Was a very easy portage. We just left the boats loaded and pulled them with ropes down the trail.
I know you are supposed carry through a portage but being both boats were Old towns, tough as nails, and heavy as He!! we find dragging them works just fine. The whole portage lasted about 30 minutes and comes out in a camp's yard on the other side Spendnic lake proper.
There we ran into a youth group from Maine who just finished the portage and were planning at staying at Birch Island I had wanted to stay there but we let the Americans have it.
We ended up getting to the Ledges camp Maybe 7Ish and covered about 23km's on Monday
Tuesday we paddled to Todd's Island The American youth group showed up and were hoping to stay there and we were very politely told that it might not be good for use to share a camp with all the younguns around, I can't imagine why:)
The Camp counsel Pulls out his maps and I just about die laughing as he just has some old Topo maps printed of the National geographic web site, and the only camping spots they had marked down were camping spots that previous guides had stayed at in early years.
Needless to say he was more than happy when I offered him my St Croix water way map. cudos for him using the old topo maps I guess that does keep a little more adventure in it.
There was a funny thing floating in the water at Todd's Island We ended up paddling over to it and after poking it we find it is the back half of a decomposing dear and man did it stink. Needless to say we mentioned to the Youth group from USA that they might want to pump their water from the other side of the Island:)
Tuesday night we spent at Lower Todd's Island Went for a midnight paddle that was awesome.
Wednesday was a easy paddle to Vanceboro and our car.
Not much runnable right now so the Chip Lakes system was a easy bet.
We went to the Coffee mill for the obligatory last meal before setting out on a trip and were shuttled to North lake and in the water by 10am Sunday.
It was a little strange that the shuttle driver had made us a tupperware container of spaghetti and thought we could use a tin of corned beef. Not wanting to offend our shuttle driver might like to use them again we very graciously accepted, even though our coolers were full and we had no place to put it. I was secretly thinking of tossing it in the lake so we just tucked it in were ever we could.
North lake was not very fun at all paddling strait into the wind and waves. It was taking so long we decided to have a quick lunch, and thought we should avoid a guilty conscience and we had a floating spaghetti meal as the sun had nicely warmed it up, it actually was quite good but we did end up losing one trusty uber hi tech spork. oh well
Grand Lake was very busy with pontoon boats. ski boats and floating tubes. The most amazing camp site was Spruce point
We were going to stay there but thought we needed to cover more ground so continued to Hayes point. There was all ready a canoe group there so we continued to the next one and it served our purposes well. Lots of lightning Sunday night but not really any rain.
We ended up doing 20.7km's that day in about 7hrs I think.
Got on the water Monday around 9ish The American Patrol boat was making steady passes by us I'm not sure why we were attracting there attention, If they had have came over I would have offered them a beer but they didn't cross the boundary line.
The portage at the Dam at the End of Grand lake was very easy. and Forest city stream was a pleasure to have a little moving water.
We decided to skip Forest city falls in order to get ahead of the group in front of us so we took the first portage on the St Croix water way map. We almost ended up portaging in the woods about 25 Meters off the real portage trail We thought we had found it and it was just over gown but it really was just walking through the woods. I'm glad we found the real one, like a minute boat ride further towards Mud falls.
Was a very easy portage. We just left the boats loaded and pulled them with ropes down the trail.
I know you are supposed carry through a portage but being both boats were Old towns, tough as nails, and heavy as He!! we find dragging them works just fine. The whole portage lasted about 30 minutes and comes out in a camp's yard on the other side Spendnic lake proper.
There we ran into a youth group from Maine who just finished the portage and were planning at staying at Birch Island I had wanted to stay there but we let the Americans have it.
We ended up getting to the Ledges camp Maybe 7Ish and covered about 23km's on Monday
Tuesday we paddled to Todd's Island The American youth group showed up and were hoping to stay there and we were very politely told that it might not be good for use to share a camp with all the younguns around, I can't imagine why:)
The Camp counsel Pulls out his maps and I just about die laughing as he just has some old Topo maps printed of the National geographic web site, and the only camping spots they had marked down were camping spots that previous guides had stayed at in early years.
Needless to say he was more than happy when I offered him my St Croix water way map. cudos for him using the old topo maps I guess that does keep a little more adventure in it.
There was a funny thing floating in the water at Todd's Island We ended up paddling over to it and after poking it we find it is the back half of a decomposing dear and man did it stink. Needless to say we mentioned to the Youth group from USA that they might want to pump their water from the other side of the Island:)
Tuesday night we spent at Lower Todd's Island Went for a midnight paddle that was awesome.
Wednesday was a easy paddle to Vanceboro and our car.