Temagami Trip 3: Florence Lake and Back
We flew into Florence Lake and took a leisurely ten days to paddle back to the town of Temagami. Our plans for the trip are outlined here.
To watch a 6 minute version of the trip, check this out:
Day 1: Saturday, August 8 Temagami to Florence Lake
Day 1 Overview: Take off at 2:30 pm arrived at Florence Lake.
We arrived at Lakeland and they weighed all our gear which amounted to 100 lbs. The pilot seemed pleased that we packed a “normal” amount (his words). We had bumpy but lovely flight over Temagami to Florence Lake.
It was so weird to fly in. I felt wobbly when I got in our canoe. I was disoriented. I didn’t know which direction we were facing and I felt like a stranger to the lake. Typically, we paddle in to our campsite and we have a more gradual introduction. The pilot pointed north-west and said “The river’s that way.” and with that he waved, slammed the door shut and put-putted off for a watery runway.
We went for a paddle around Florence Lake and came to a portage through a campsite. There was an old shack and the site was occupied. The solo paddler was Chris Beeman, assistant professor at Brandon University. We found him enchanting. We chatted for a few minutes and in that short time he set the tone for the rest of our trip. Casual, kind, and gave a taste of some profound ideas that we are sure to investigate further now that we are home. He mentioned that he had been coming to this place for over 20 years. We told him which campsite we were staying on. What he said would stay with us throughout the trip: “I’ve never been there.” Wow, we loved this perspective. A man who has spent years paddling this area, this lake, but his experience was mapped into specific sites he had stayed with, had a relationship with. Maybe that’s the mindset that keeps you coming back, year after year, and feeling like you are seeing an old friend who still has some new side of her to experience trip after trip. Greg liked that he asked us if we had been the ones to come in by plan. We’ve never been asked “Did you come in on the plane?” ever before.
Day 2: Sunday, August 9 Florence Lake to Macpherson Lake
Day 2 Overview: Put on at 9:20 am arrived at Macpherson Lake 8 hours later at around 6pm. 29 km paddling, 1000m portage and two stops for fishing. Only got lost once.
We put on to a sunny morning after a night of heavy mist and light rain. We paddled up the Florence River enjoying the lily pads and boggy edged river. Chris flew along in his solo handmade cedar strip canoe and helped us get back on track when we weren’t sure where to go. We stopped to try to catch some fish for lunch, but had no luck.
It was just after 11am when Greg scrambled up to snap this shot. We took a couple more casts then headed on to Duff Lake heading for the short cut to the South Channel of Lady Evelyn River.
We came across Chris again, having lunch on a campsite along the winding river.
“There are lots of blueberries ahead — you know that right?” He called out to us, once again being so generous with information and insights. “The place is famous.” He gestured in the direction of travel. Famous, I thought, famous to whom? To paddlers? To the ancients? To the animals? The Temagami indigenous people? Famous. Once again, he was enchanting.
We didn’t find blueberries. We barely found the portage to make the short cut! We ended up paddling up into two oxbows looking for the right landmarks. I was glad we had printed this map from Ottertooth. The hints are vague, but just enough to help us find our way.
We got to the Short Cut Lake portage at 2:15pm and we were through with much pushing and shoving 25 minutes later. We fished, but were skunked again. We carried on to Macpherson Lake and we landed at our campsite by 5:55pm. Also, Chris passed us again while we were on our Macpherson Lake site. What a paddler! A local legend for sure. He was off to see Hap Wilson, his co-author for an upcoming book, at the Ecolodge. We hoped we would see him again.
Day 3: Monday, August 10 Florence Lake to Kathrine Lake (aka Dividing Lake)
Day 3 Overview: Put on at 8:50am and arrived at our campsite at the head of both the North and South Channel of Lady Evelyn River by 12:25pm. Day tripped to from Kathrine to Centre Falls from 3:30–7:30pm. 7.5 hours of paddling, and many small portages!
Our site on Macpherson Lake was dominated by a couple huge White Pines. Greg had a particular fondness for the one by the fire pit, which he named “Charles.” It’s a bit colonial and we started to wonder what the Anishnawbe names of plants, animals and places. Our map from Temagami Outfitters has Anishnawbe names in addition to the settler names of lakes and rivers. They are hard for our mouths to pronounce, but we liked the notion of honouring the lakes and rivers this way.
Two rapids linked us to Kathrine Lake. At the bottom of the first we saw a two moose. We ran the second one, with moderate success.
After a hot lunch at our Kathrine Lake campsite, we headed down river along the North Channel of Lady Evelyn River. We just had to get back to Centre Falls and we wanted to explore this section that was still new to us. We had another lovely swim at Centre falls and then we were home by 7:30 on Kathrine Lake for a fire and supper. We settled in our tents just before the rain, thunder and lightning settled in for the night.
Day 4 & 5: Tuesday, August 11 & Wednesday August 12 ~ Kathrine Lake to Bridal Veil Falls
Day 4 & 5 Overview: Put on at 10:35am arrived at Bridal Veil Falls around 1pm. Stayed for two days.
We had a lazy morning, luckily rain free. A party of two canoes paddled past our site and we saw the Lakeland plane coming in for a landing up river on Macpherson. A little while later we noticed one canoe returning our way, with tandem paddlers paddling in perfect unison. It was a red canoe and we saw two black paddle blades slice through the water effortlessly. We think it may have been Andrea and Hap Wilson returning their guests to their flight pick up on Macpherson. Hap’s energy looms large for us, after all we are following his trip plan and studying his drawings of the rapids.
We set off by 10:35 am. We portaged around Rapid #13 “Labyrinth” and enjoyed looking at the round shapes formed in the rocks from whirling, driving white water. By 11:30 we had arrived at Cabin Falls and we could peak at one of the structures through piney peepholes on the portage. We paddled up to the bottom of the falls and could see some people having coffee on the deck above us. What a spot for a cabin!
And then came Bridal Veil Falls. Stop everything. Greg had said the night before that Helen Falls was “arresting.” He felt like the falls stopped him cold, or warm, or something. Just stopped him: his heart, his mind, everything. Bridal Veil Falls did this again. Our hearts skipped a beat and our ears rang with the sound of thundering water.
We arrived mid day and were super lucky that this campsite was free. We set up and went searching for a spot to swim. We found the most amazing whirlpool above the falls. Bliss!
Day 6: Thursday, August 13 Bridal Veil Falls to Diamond Lake
Day 6 Overview: 6:45am start. 8:30 am arrive on Willow Island Lake. Breakfast, swim and fish from 8:30am-10:15am. 10:15am-12:30 to paddle up and around through 2 portages into the southern tip of Lady Evelyn Lake. Arrived at campsite on Diamond Lake 4:30pm. 8 hours of paddling and 3 portages.
We decided on an early start to day 6 with the hope of catching some Walleye where the South Channel of the Lady Evelyn River flows into Willow Island Lake. Greg did an incredible job of getting through Fat Man Squeeze and down the super steep and rocky portage to the landing below Fat Man Falls. Very impressive. We headed onwards downriver.
We set up on a giant rock with a great view. We stayed here for a while and shot some video, fished, swam and ate. Delightful.
We skipped doing the 2-mile portage into Diamond Lake and opted for the longer day up and around. We had already been in camp at Bridal Veil for two days so it was time to get in a good day of paddling. We were aiming for campsites at the south end of Lady Evelyn Lake. We had gone by those sites on another trip and found them lovely from the water. But when we got down that way, we found them a little sparse, a little small and a little too hot. We pushed on through the Lady Evelyn Falls portage into Diamond.
The maps describe Diamond Lake as being a historically popular route that was often also a place for meeting and trading. On our previous two trips we had found the lake stunning beautiful and deserted. This time we realized that Diamond Lake is not just historically a busy waterway, but due to the fact that it links so many lakes, it remains a busy intersectional lake today. It is still the connecting hub of many different routes and regions. So, getting on the lake so late in the day meant that we were left with the last campsite in the Eastern side which was very close to the portage. It was very buggy, unusually so for this time of year. It was still very beautiful and we did enjoy a great sunset before the mosquitos and stable flies forced us into our tent for an early nights rest.
Day 7: Friday, August 14 Diamond Lake to Kokoko Lake
Day 7 Overview: Put on 9:40am and arrived on our campsite on Kokoko Lake at 3:30pm. Five hours of paddling to cover about 20km. Two short portages.
It was a super nice morning on Diamond Lake, much like the first morning we ever paddled on to her. Sky above and sky below, reflecting in the calm water. We paddled into Sharp Rock Inlet and by one of our campsites from our first trip. All our trips to Temagami this summer have been brilliant. It was hot, but the pilot that dropped us off on the first day had told us “Better than snow.” Which we suppose is a classically Northern perspective. So we chuckled at our pilots dry-matter-of-fact humour and were glad for long pants and shirts to protect our skin. By 11:11 we were at the Lower Narrows and stopped at a campsite for coffee, snacks and a swim. We would swim yet again at Devil Mountain and eat and drink even more then too. Eating, drinking and swimming was our plan to deal with the heat. 11:11 makes me think of my precious house pet Alex. We talked about our friends and marvelled at how cool they are. Their neat hobbies, brainy jobs and funny style like a trash-panda baseball hat. We love being together in our canoe, but we think fondly of our friends and family and constantly wish they were able to transport in for the best moments. I have pictures of my nieces with me for a video project I am making for them. Once again, I bring out their laminated photos to capture a pretend version of them tripping with their auntie Misha and Uncle Greg. These places are so special and the urge to share the experience is huge for me. I guess that explains the long blog posts and little movies. Thanks for indulging me my friend and family readers!
We found a great campsite on Kokoko Lake that had all these weird elements and traces of human visitors. There were memorial plaques discretely hanging on trees away from the campsite, fishing lures, and this impressive shelving situation. It was a sweet break on my lower back to be able to stand and cook. These campsites closer to town feel a bit cowboy-wild-westernish. They have the feel of the anglers who use them and a different character. We hoped that the giant lures meant we would be successful fishing, but no, skunked again. Not that we gave it much time, we were more interested in swimming, eating, and paddling around the lovely Kokoko.
Day 8: Saturday, August 15 Kokoko Lake to Spawning Lake
Day 8 Overview: This is officially our longest trip! Put on at 10am and paddled 2.5 hours to a great lunch spot where we stayed from 12:30pm — 2:15pm. We arrived at our campsite on Spawning, the only campers on the lake, at 4pm. 4 hours and 20 minutes of paddling with 1 hard portage of 910m into spawning.
After a morning fire to accompany our ritual of breakfast and swim, we were off mid morning down Kokoko Lake into a headwind. The wind increased as we approached Kokoko bay and Temagami Lake beyond. It was still sunny and hot. The wind felt like facing down a massive hot hair dryer but was manageable.
I had the strangest feeling when a tin angling boat went by and the wake of the boat rolled towards our canoe. As my hips wiggled up and down, naturally adjusting the waves below our craft, I felt memory in the movement. It was that movement that told me I was back in the busier waters of Temagami. Back with the anglers, always happily waving as they go by. Each zone of the trip feels different and the feeling often comes directly through my Langford into my body. The canoe knocking and rocking gently to the triple role of perfectly angled wake coming off the power boat at a gentle angle made me nostalgic for this place and happy to return. I was glad that I had happy feelings for being back to this place. Bridal Veil Falls had been so stunning. I’m glad the trip wasn’t 3 days to get to Bridal Veil Falls and 5 to get back out. Each part of the trip was moving us physically and emotionally in its own way.
After lunch in a narrows between Kokoko Bay and the bigger waters of Temagami Lake, we head East then North through Loon Bay and on to Spawning. The portage was tricky with lots of trees down and very over grown. But our reward was a lake to ourselves with a few daytime anglers. They showed us where to fish by where they put-putted along and they left before we had our dinner. As the sun went down, we tidied up camp and headed out to fish for Walleye.
Success! We finally caught a walleye! Greg caught a nice sized fish and we had dinner part 2. Another Temagami badge earned!
Day 9: Sunday, August 16 Spawning Lake to N-E Arm of Temagami Lake via Loon Lodge
Red sky at night, sailor’s delight. Red sky in the morning, sailor’s take warning. That’s the saying and the extent of my backcountry weather forecasting. So given how ruby red the sky had been the night before, it was a surprise to get rain just as we were finishing breakfast on Sunday morning. We had just packed up the tent and most of our gear so we were lucky that things were mostly dry.
We have learned that the minute it starts to rain, you put on your gear. The rain settled in and we stayed dry. We set off and instead of portaging directly into the middle of the Northeast Arm of Temagami Lake we went back Southwest towards Loon Bay and headed down towards the Temagami Lake Road Access point to stop in at Loon Lodge. On our first trip we had started from this access point and joked about how we wished the sign had said: Snack, Bar, Lodge and not Snack Bar and Lodge. Punctuation makes a big difference. Anyway, we decided to stop in hoping for chocolate bars and break from the rain.
We got even more than we had hoped. A full greasy breakfast! Not only that, but we could hear the owner chatting with a friend about how the place had just sold and they were reminiscing about the place and wondering what the future might hold for it under new ownership. It was positive and cheerful and deeply authentic. But, mostly I devoured toast and ten packets of jam.
We took about a thousand pictures of this super quaint spot and then bought 3 chocolate bars and 2 homemade coconut butter tarts to get us through a rainy day and last night of our trip.
We put back on the water and started to paddle. It was only 12:20pm. We were about 20km from town. From our car. From driving home to dry bed, and furniture and showers and all the amenities of modern western life. Neither of us said anything about this as we began to paddle. That gentle push at my back, the waves that didn’t slap the canoe and the silence all told me we had a heck of a tail wind. We decided that Temagami was sending us home and our ten day was really a 9 day. We paddled out and were back in our car setting back home at 4:00pm.
Epilogue
There were many stellar moments on this trip. One moment of transformation and realization happened at 2:13pm on Wednesday August 12. We were on Bridal Veil Falls campsite. Prior to this moment, I had experienced glimpses at my changing self and felt that something was happening. But this moment was the first true moment (2:13 that is) of realizing I had started to regularly express myself with a hang-ten finger expression to fully elucidate my real feelings. It’s a saucy thumbs up with a pinky finger flare and limp wrist shake that originates in the soul and travels up past the elbow.
Yes, hang ten. Shaka. Hang loose. My brown hands say shaka, baby.
