Missinaibi Adventure 2008
Submitted by George Granlund
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See photos from the trip on George's Picasa web album
Howling winds. Otherworldly silence. Backbreaking portages. Pesky mosquitoes. Blinding sunshine. Torrential rain. Blazing lightning. Haunting pictographs. Munching beavers. Sweet, sweet berries. Black bear, brown moose, a thieving fox. Ernieburgers. Patty’s pizza night. Patty, Bill, Cathy, Barb, Joe, Brenda, Tom and George. Take those ingredients, mix them all together, just add water, and you have an East Coast Paddlers Missinaibi Adventure.
Fact:
The word “Missinaibi” is the English version of an Ojibway phrase, “pictured waters” or “pictures in the water” and probably refers to the more than 100 rock paintings or pictographs of a people and culture long past.
After meeting at Patty Pape’s property on Batchawana Bay, we journeyed another 200 miles north to the tiny village of Missinabie located on the shores of enormous Dog Lake in Ontario. I’d been touting the joys of an Ernieburger served at, where else, Ernie’s, so our first order of business was to enjoy a burger (“sorry, we’re out of fries”), buy fishing licenses, and plan our trip. We camped at Ernie’s Cottages and Campground and got our start under a blazing sun and a delightful tailwind. Dog Lake has hundreds of bays, twists and turns, so we all navigated by compass, map and GPS to paddle the 10 miles to the first of four portages. It was quickly evident why Native Americans and the Voyageurs preferred a canoe for transportation between lakes rather than the kayak of the Inuit and Inupiat who traversed the open ocean far to the north. My wife Cathy and I had our 18’ Sawyer cruiser canoe equipped with a portage yoke to carry us and three large packs on the three lakes that we paddled. The other 6 paddlers had sea kayaks that each required many trips over the rocks and roots to get to the next lake. While it was arduous work, there were no complaints (at least verbalized). Once back on the lakes, the kayaks showed the beauty of their design. They handled big wind and waves effortlessly on Lake Missinaibi and cheated the headwinds that we faced on our return trip. Our canoe struggled in the 2+ foot waves and worked very hard to keep the bow nosed into the waves.
Fact:
The Missinaibi Lake area was visited by ancestral Ojibway and Cree as early as 1000 B.C. These ancient peoples were nomads, moving with the seasons and food supplies. Fish was an important food source, especially in the spring when family groups would gather at spawning areas. Whitefish Falls on Missinaibi Lake was a favorite fishing spot for those spring camps, as it still is today.
This year was reported to be a banner year for black bears. We wanted to avoid the provincial park campground where the bears were concentrated and camped in the backcountry, vigilant about keeping a clean camp and hanging our food each night. We took satisfaction in a well-hung bear bag. Our second lake to paddle was Crooked Lake and we were the only people on its entire 10 mile length. Day two dawned clear and cool, but the sun soon delivered a large measure of warmth, just in time for the second portage to the lake known to the locals as “Big Miss”. Once on the big lake we made a two mile crossing to the large unnamed island that was located smack in the middle of the lake where three enormous bays converge. The literature stated that winds and waves can build quickly. We concur. We had a wonderful vantage point from our campsite and were treated to about every weather form that we could imagine. After breakfast on day three, all hell broke loose. We were subjected to driving rain, blinding lightning and seemingly endless rolling thunder. We were in awe.
Fact:
Fairy Point on Missinaibi Lake has the most extensive collection of pictographs in Northeastern Ontario. Over one hundred paintings cover a rock cliff for half a mile, some representing animals and humans, others abstract or mythical.
After the protracted rainstorm, we packed up and headed to Fairy Point and up Barclay Bay to Whitefish Falls. We paddled through intermittent rain squalls and could hear the thunder of the falls more than a mile away. We hiked a portage trail thinking that we might see the rapids on the Little Missinaibi River that comes from far upstream. We had no luck on seeing the rapids but got a few very good pictures of the falls that empties into the big lake. We spoke with some fishermen at the falls and they relayed to us that the fishing hadn’t been good---their stringer of fish looked pretty good to us though.
Our fourth day started out cool and we had to wait a few hours for the waves and wind to die down. We wanted to do some exploring on one of the other bays. Soon after we headed out, the wind increased and Cathy and I were intimidated by the building waves so we headed the two miles back to camp. On our way back we took some water over the bow and gunwales. In a canoe, we are not much more than novices, so I was worried about a capsize. We kept the bow nosed into the wind and took shelter in the lee of a small island to pump out the 8” of water that had accumulated on the bottom of the canoe and threatened to destabilize it. With great relief, we got back to camp. I knew that the kayaks would fare better and it wasn’t long before the group struggled into the wind and around the island to join us.
Fact:
Missinaibi Provincial Park is nestled in the center of the Chapleau Crown Game Preserve, the world’s largest. Since the day that this area was established in 1925, all hunting and trapping of fur-bearing and game animals has been prohibited.
On the fifth day of the trip, we retraced our paddle strokes and started back through the lakes and portages. Of course the wind had now shifted and we were faced with a 15-20 mile an hour headwind to make our way back to the portage. Everyone stayed close together and we had no mishaps. We were getting pretty good at portaging by now and figured out how to carry the most stuff in the least trips. Brenda had done some damage to her foot early on in the trip but still insisted on carrying a heavy load. Barb brought along a set of wheels that eased the burden and allowed some of the boats to be portaged nearly full of gear. We found our way back to a previous camp of ours on Crooked Lake and enjoyed a campfire and millions of stars. Just as we were all settled down, we heard a loud gnawing sound and movement in the bush. Bill crawled out of his tent to find evidence of the resident beaver. Apparently we had settled down to camp right in his dining room.
On day six, the group spotted the only black bear of the trip. He looked like a yearling and came out to the lakeshore apparently looking for berries. He didn’t seem to be nervous at our presence and kept knocking down bushes and eating the fruit. We were all familiar with the story of a woman who was dragged out of her tent and mauled and killed a few years earlier on Barclay Bay and we followed the “bear wise” guidelines and gave the bears a wide berth. Our last portage between Crooked and Dog Lakes was called the “Height of Land” portage because it crossed over where water is shed to Dog Lake and on into Lake Superior and the Atlantic Ocean in one direction and into Crooked Lake and the Missinaibi River and on into the Arctic Ocean in the other direction. It sounds more impressive than it actually was and, aside from the thigh-deep muck that we encountered, was pretty uneventful. The sun was bright and the winds light for the last 10 miles back to Missinabie and we enjoyed seeing our last of many loons for the trip.
As we were gliding across Crooked Lake on our last day, I was reminded of a quote from the book “Canoeing with the Cree”. The quote summed up my feelings of our Missinaibi Adventure and reads--- “Sights such as these are reserved for those who will suffer to behold them”.