Thursday Aug 26 Wabakimi

Breakfast time. Gonna be big waves to paddle through, so make sure you fill up!

The girls are busy throwing out logs and setting "boats" off to sail while we pack up.

They saved some boats for letting go when we came to a big open wavy place...hoping to send them off to distant lands.

"Did you let your boat go Evelyn?" Jennifer yells across the water.

Even with both Daniel and Jennifer, I have a real problem keeping up with the other canoes. Jennifer didn't like that she didn't have her own seat anymore, so she wasn't always eager to help. But even when she did, it was tough slogging for us.

Matthew and Dad seemed to fair better than us! We stopped and switched people around once again...trying to find a way to spread out our strength more evenly...it's no fun being stuck behind, and it's boring always having to wait for someone behind you!

We stopped for lunch at the border of the park. Proof we made it to Wabakimi!! Evelyn would not come and pose for the picture, but she ended up in in anyways. :p

I got to pose too. Just a quick snapshot Melanie. I was supposed to pose just with Philip, but Jennifer and Daniel didn't get the memo. And my cell phone camera is all we have for pictures...and we want the battery to last for 13 days! So just snap a picture and then turn off the camera. Save the battery! (I was too cheap to buy a batter pack...could photos of the last day or two really be worth a hundred bucks?) When we are home, or back at the van, we can see if any of the pictures turned out.

Time to load up again. Evelyn got cold fairly easily. She obviously wasn't paddling hard enough. ;) It doesn't help that she doesn't have enough meat on her bones. I'm looking at the maps and seeing all the big open water that we are going to have to paddle through and hoping that we don't have really cold or wet weather. Because even with the extra clothes we have I worry if we'll have enough to keep Evelyn warm. (I tend to worry a lot.) We follow Caribou River most of the day.

Loaded up in our bellies, and the canoes are loaded up too. Dad and Matthew, with Evelyn lending a hand.

Melanie, Jennifer and I, with a small bag or two. I can keep up much better this way! Jennifer generally sits along for the ride, still feeling grumpy overall. Fortunately she forgets she's grumpy and enjoys herself too.

Nathan assures us he and Daniel can keep up. And they do...they are often in the lead still.

Being the lightest canoe, Nathan and Daniel show us how to run this small "rapid". No problem, we can keep our gear in the boats.

There goes the last canoe, lining through the rapid spot. No problem.

We have another portage to do. We've done a 100 meter one earlier today. And a 80 meter. And this one, we think, is the last. It is a mucky looking place to get in and out. You don't want your shoes covered in this mud, if you can help it.

But then we notice that our two separate laminate maps don't overlap where we thought they did and there are actually another 100 meter and another 80 meter along this stretch of map. This is Wabakimi Park though, so we can camp anytime we like on whatever lake or river we like. As long as it looks like it's a campsite. The only indicator is a ring of stones as a firepit...so if we misunderstand a spot, who can blame us? ;)

We end up camping at the final 80 meter portage. It's getting close to 5pm and we are getting tired. Time to call it a day. We have a new tent this year, just as easy to set up as all the other ones. And it doesn't take up water from the floor...which is very handy in this mossy terrain. It hasn't been very wet so far, just cloudy weather and a few sprinkles so far.

There is a really nice beach on the further end of the portage. Really close to our tents. The girls make use of the sandy beach.

This is our first trip with any type of satellite phones. Daniel eagerly sent out our nightly message...these gadgets are a bit more modern in that you can send a text message out. Every night when camp is set out we say we are doing fine and all is well. And the outfitters get to know where the campsites are...since our exact location gets sent out with our text message. Very smart! And more importantly, if we really have an emergency, we can ask for help...they can send a float plane out anywhere...I forget how much open water they need, was it one km of open water...so that's a lot of places in the park as the lakes tend to be plenty big!

One food back set out on this beach, and one on the other. And no animals have touched any of them so far. Not even a mouse. The girls spent most of the time at the sandy beach while the rest of us worked on camp chores.

Nathan cuts wood. Others keep the fire going. Set up tents. Cook dinner (that would be me).

The other pack on the other beach. It also made it through the night. My worrying didn't make any more or less safe.

Marshmallow time! When we had planned to be in Quetico we knew there were no fires allowed. They already had fire problems, before the fires got out even worse and they had to send everyone out of the park. But here in Wabakimi we are allowed fires. Which is great for marshmallows. While on the subject of fires, burning up smelly garbage is the main purpose of a nightly fire. It helps keep any hungry animals from getting too interested in us. Every night we burn up our food packages from the day, and we usually don't have any opened packages left, except maybe gorp and crackers, which aren't as interesting (or smelly) as meats and cheeses.