Monday, September 7, 2015

Day 17

Day 17.  Boulder Lake to the Kopka River.  12.2 Miles.

Today we made it to the Kopka River.  There were supposed to be three portages between Boulder Lake and the Kopka, but the outlet to Boulder was blocked by an active beaver dam (the first we saw on the trip) which raised the water level enough for us to paddle through the first one to the unnamed pond.


When we arrived at the Kopka River, we were pleasantly surprised to see its modest size.  After hearing it described as the "Nahanni of Ontario" and experiencing the larger Ogapi first, we were a little put-off by the prospect of negotiating it.  But, we needn't have worried.  It looked manageable, at least in late summer.

We had lunch on the end of the last portage, then headed down Lake Kenackskaniss, a widening through which the Kopka River flows.  We checked out several campsites and probably should have stopped at the second one, but paddled down to the outlet of the lake instead.  There we realized that we would have to take the first of the Seven Sisters portages, something we had meant to leave off until the next day.  This portage is not one of the scenic ones, just a long slog with a lot of boulder hopping and a very challenging landing at the end.

We camped that night on the second of the Seven Sisters portages, on a huge rock outcropping next to a spectacular rapids.  It was very scenic, but there were several crabby moments before we arrived.

After the rainy summer, mushrooms grew everywhere
click for day 18

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