This trip was supposed to be an outing across Eklutna Lake on a sunny day. While driving there, we noticed dark clouds over Eklutna. This has happened before. Sunny in the city, raining in the one mountain valley we want to explore. Fool me one shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. I secured consensus on redirect to Nancy Lakes from Lydia with the promise that I would carry the canoe on all portages. This wound up being worthwhile this once, but lead to me selling the canoe. I’ve have the outline of the 8ish mile Lynx Lake Loop almost memorized, but Lydia is smart enough to take a screenshot of the DNR map before we lose cell service.
Saturday, June 17
We arrived mid-afternoon and commenced the undertaking of getting the canoe off the car and to the water. This is a process involving releasing four ratchet straps, sliding the canoe off the fence posts I use a as carrying rack because the canoe is too wide for the rack which came with our car, and re-rigging two of the ratchet straps in an X across the center of the canoe to form “portage straps” (more on that later). More than half an hour and lot of heaving passes. The boat is 94lb scanoe made of thick ABS and galvanized steel. The upside is that it cost $300, came with portage wheels (not usable on this trip), paddles, and doesn’t need to be treated gently. That last point is important because it’s too heavy and unwieldy to treat it anything other than roughly. At ~40″ wide (“beam” in nautical terms) and no center thwart, I haven’t been able to do a proper canoe lift (instructional video using a narrow, 50lb canoe, with a portage yolk in the center) so it gets dragged for anything which isn’t a proper portage.
We set off around the loop counter-clockwise to get the long portages out of the way early in the trip.
We’d been on Tanaina Lake once before and were excited to actually walk the portage at the south end to see where it went. The lakes aren’t that large so it didn’t take long to cross. We beached the canoe in the mud next to the boards in the end of the portage trail. Then we repacked everything which wasn’t in our giant drybag packs into said packs so walking would be easier. Off came the life vests. Shoes were changed for rainboots in case of mud. Water bottles, snacks, and camp chairs we’d had out in the canoe went in as well. The repacking took a bit, but gave us time for a snack, and we were taking a break anyways as Lydia’s stomach hadn’t been feeling well since the morning. We carried the bags over the longest portage of the trip, past a pond, along swampy boards to Little Noluck Lake. Then I want back for the canoe. Lydia got tired of waiting in a swarm of mosquitoes and met me part way back (video).
While crossing Little No Luck lake, we made a plan to be a little quicker on the next portage by not taking off our life vests. We saw a mother loon sleeping next to the water with a chick under her wing.
A short portage took us to Big Noluck lake. I get the canoe on my shoulders be dragging it out of the water, flipping it over, then hoisting the front while flat back where a motor might be mounted stabilizes it against falling sideways. I walk backwards under the canoe until my shoulders meet the X-shaped straps across the canoes center. This involves progressively crouching and rounding my back before standing up with my back still rounded since the center of gravity isn’t quite where the X is. Practice made the process quicker but it never got comfortable.
On Big Noluck Lake we had no luck finding the portage and had to pull out the GPS on the phone which didn’t have the portage trails and tried to line it up with our map, which did. I’d never used a GPS on water before and hadn’t realized how connected my conception of GPS usage is to “tracks” and “routes” – lines you’re supposed to follow. On a lake, there’s no line to follow. “On trail” doesn’t really mean anything. The questions are about what you’re looking at, not where you are. Was that little bay in front of us the one with the portage? Or was that spit of land hiding it? This has the effect of playing “hot and cold”. The answers require a little thinking and get clearer as you get closer.
The portage from Big Noluck to a lake whose name wasn’t on our screen-shot map was short and steep. We crossed a double-track which was overgrown but only with one season’s overgrowth. It was getting late enough that we searched a short distance in each direction for a campsite, but finding nothing flat, much less open, chose to continue. The next put in was to a lake whose name was cut off on our map and so we referred to as No Name Lake but is apparent called Chicken Lake. The sun was beginning to get low but summer evenings here are long and end late. It was a beautiful paddle during golden hour.
On the short portage between Chicken Lake and James Lake there were several campsites, all occupied. I envied their lighter, smaller canoes. We began to worry about where we would sleep.
To escape the mosquitoes we tried boiling water for our freeze dried meals during the paddle across James Lake. We did manage to escape the mosquitoes, though we had to drift some as paddling rocked the boat, and the stove with pot atop. The small dock at the start of the portage to Owl Lake didn’t require head nets so we sat in our camp chairs and at dinner as the sun dipped below the tree line. Fortunately, a small, primitive campsite was available near the trail. Unfortunately, it was infested with mosquitoes. I survived relatively unscathed, but given Lydia’s experience, we might bring a net tent for latrine trips next time.
Sunday, June 18
Our first discussion of the day was a debate on the risks of cooking in the tent vs the risk of cooking in the mosquitoes outside the tent. We opted to attempt to make breakfast in the canoe as we’d done with dinner the night before and were breaking camp when a couple passed on the trail. They stopped to say chat and the fellow turns out to have previously been a guide in the Boundary Waters. He didn’t bother taking the canoe off his shoulders for the several minutes we talked. We managed breakfast while crossing Owl Lake, but need to find a better way of cooking in a canoe than putting a tall pot of water on a small burner. Despite being quite stable as far as canoes go, it can be hard to not rock the boat when you’re also trying to not drift into a rock.
The portage from Owl to Charr Lake is longer than it appears on the map. Our portage process was more efficient than the day before and we could avoid unpacking for the the first walk to the next lake carrying our dry bags. Lydia would then rearrange gear, prepare snacks, filter water, etc… to prepare for the next paddle while I went back for the canoe. The “portage straps” had left bruises on my shoulders and my neck. My back muscles hadn’t recovered completely from the awkward carries the day before. Despite the process improvements, portages became a race to see whether I could put up with the discomfort long enough to get to the next lake without yielding to the need for respite.
Charr Lake had several Loons which we spent some time watching. It was a nice rest after the portage. We felt quite limited by the lack of zoom lenses and burst mode on our phones. Canoeing and wildlife photography are different from the hiking and landscape photography I usually find myself doing. Wildlife tends to run away, which landscapes don’t. Hikers can carry their own cameras and position themselves perfectly whereas canoeists rely on a partner to steer and stabilize their vehicle while trying to frame a shot.
After a short while, we saw a pair of canoeists descending the portage trail, talking loudly. A burly, sunburnt, shirtless young man was dragging their watercraft unceremoniously over roots and rocks him using a chest harness. I had thought that my careless flipping of our canoe when lifting it and sliding it short distances on beaches, was rough treatment. Their canoe looked a similar color to the faded red rental canoes at the put-in of Tanaina Lake. Maybe you party harder on rentals? The portage to Lynx Lake was down a long, swampy neck and our pursuers continued down a small stream instead of taking out at the portage. This would have been our first instance of having to pass on a portage trail which seems tricky as canoes maybe be graceful on the water but are unwieldy on land so we were glad they diverted.
Lynx Lake is the largest body of water on the circuit, but the route just cuts through the northwest tip. There are also cabins and a camp, but there seems to be enough space for everyone. The portage trail to Little Frazer Lake was the best maintained so far. Clearly the east side of the loop sees more traffic. The portage from Little Frazer Lake to Frazer Lake crosses the same trail which we’d seen between Big Noluck and Chicken Lakes but was better maintained here. A sign even told us we were on the Lynx Lake Loop.
Frazer Lake was the highlight of the trip. Conditions were so placid that stand-up-paddle-boarders were lunching casually while floating past. As much as loons are Lydia’s favorite bird, trumpeter swans are pretty cool too (video) and it was my first time seeing them in the wild since being at Red Rock Lake in Montana on a family trip to see Uncle Donald who introduced me to canoeing. After the swans floated away, we took a snack in the canoe resting against the bank. It was kinda strange to be next to land but not actually step on it. I like the idea of developing the skills to never have to leave the canoe. Then a narrow, still, water way snakes up to Jacknife Lake which kept seeming like it would dry up or turn into a bog and become unpassable, but never quite did.
The portage from Jacknife to Ardaw Lake was the first time I had to rest on a portage. Our water filter had broken yesterday and despite some fiddling, we weren’t able to push water into the filter element. We’d been trying to finish the loop with what water was already in our bottles, but when Lydia saw my condition at the end of the portage, she offered me the rest of our filtered water without me even asking for it.
Ardaw lake was pleasantly cool with a slight breeze to ripple the water. That made for a small headwind, but the variety on an otherwise calm, warm was pleasant. The ripples darken the surface of the water and hides the dust which becomes noticeable only in such static conditions as we’d had. There’s a spit of land which almost closes off the “bay” where you put in on the south side of Ardaw and it felt adventurous exploring from one part of the lake into another. The take out for the portage to Milo was a large, shallow gravel beach with a floating dock which seemed the most developed of any on the loop.
On Milo Lake we had to wait to take out as several day tripper were putting in. Someone asked us about our canoe, saying they were looking to get a new boat, wanted to know what everyone was using, and that we looked like we knew what we were doing with it. I took it as a compliment and then discouraged them from buying a scanoe.
And then were back at Tanaina Lake. There’s a large sign which is not the take-out but is near enough the beach to be more helpful than confusing in navigation. I went to the car and got the portage wheels. The canoe fell off them. I hefted it back on. In the parking lot, several people with two dogs and enough cameras that they could only be documenting their experience for social media were assembling a folding canoe. I made inquiries.
Epilogue
Once home, I left our canoe in the front yard instead of squeezing it through the side yard to store it properly. A neighbor asked if it was for sale and I managed not to give it away for free in my haste to make the disposition. Lydia intervened in time to prevent me from also giving away the portage wheels and paddles. While that canoe has enabled my dreams for the last two years, it’s also responsible for facial scars (a story which preludes our use of fence posts as a carrying rack) and bruises which took the better part of a week to heal. It’s with mixed emotions that I now watch our old ’84 scanoe being buried under the snow in my neighbors yard.
Isaac Takes A Hike 