(36) Ink Lake
High winds and a light rain kept us awake for part of our last night in the woods. We packed up quickly on the morning of the tenth and last day of our trip. The day started out as overcast and windy. This shot shows us savouring the narrow and twisting waterway through the swamp that separates McIntosh Lake from Ink Lake.
The portage from Ink Lake to Tom Thompson Lake is 2320m long and busy. It began to seem absurd that so many people could be trying to get over this portage at the same time as us. I narrowly averted colliding with another portager who was walking with his head down, oblivious to where his canoe was going. We encounter a man who was travelling with his son who was perhaps 11 years old. Neither were in good spirits as we intruded upon their sleep. They were camped along the portage with dirty cooking utensils, pots, plates, and food strewn about haphazardly. The father mentioned arriving at this location well after dark and deciding that they'd gone as far as they could. He warned me about the difficult portage I had ahead of me.
While this portage is long, it is has relatively little elevation change, so it is not nearly as difficult as the portage around the Stacks Rapids on the Petawawa. We did notice that most people seemed to be doubling-across, and we were glad to have our gear streamlined to the point of being able to do the portages in one crossing.
(36) Ink Lake
High winds and a light rain kept us awake for part of our last night in the woods. We packed up quickly on the morning of the tenth and last day of our trip. The day started out as overcast and windy. This shot shows us savouring the narrow and twisting waterway through the swamp that separates McIntosh Lake from Ink Lake.
The portage from Ink Lake to Tom Thompson Lake is 2320m long and busy. It began to seem absurd that so many people could be trying to get over this portage at the same time as us. I narrowly averted colliding with another portager who was walking with his head down, oblivious to where his canoe was going. We encounter a man who was travelling with his son who was perhaps 11 years old. Neither were in good spirits as we intruded upon their sleep. They were camped along the portage with dirty cooking utensils, pots, plates, and food strewn about haphazardly. The father mentioned arriving at this location well after dark and deciding that they'd gone as far as they could. He warned me about the difficult portage I had ahead of me.
While this portage is long, it is has relatively little elevation change, so it is not nearly as difficult as the portage around the Stacks Rapids on the Petawawa. We did notice that most people seemed to be doubling-across, and we were glad to have our gear streamlined to the point of being able to do the portages in one crossing.