Day 2

Varley - Laurel Lake

Friday July 21^st  

3 Portages = 1.5 KM

Up early as usual and headed for Laurel Lake.  This was by far the craziest day of portaging.  The first 300P wasn't bad but the 1070 between Carl Wilson and Little Cauchon was a disaster, major trees down all over the place.  We would find one, take our pack and canoe's off, find a way through, carry our stuff over, under and around just to get through.  Then it seemed we would gear all up again, head 100 M down the portage only to find another downed tree where we would then repeat the whole procedure.  At some point on this portage this just wasn't fun anymore; though looking back now it was quite a challenge!!!.

We arrived at Laurel Lake around 11:00 AM and headed straight for the island site.  As we approached we could all see that the site was a mess with downed trees everywhere.  We could also see that one of the trees was laying directly on top of a tent and the tent was all mangled up in the tree.  Although there was no canoe in site, each of us were still a little weary about what we might find on the island or in the tent.  Luckily there was nothing but some equipment.  Obviously someone left here in a hurry!!  I couldn't imagine what it must have been like sitting on this island with this storm ravaging all around.  As you can see from the pic to the right the pines were also all twisted.  It was as though the winds were swirling and did not blow the trees down but caused them to twist and rip apart while falling down.  The other pic here is of the thunder box that was blown off the top of the hill on the island. 

After checking out the damage we headed to another site and setup camp; this was home for the next two days and we were very much in need of some relaxing!!!   Another little thing to take note of from this day.  While canoeing across one of the lakes I felt a weird sensation on the top of my foot but thought it was just my sandal straps.  After adjusting them a few times I realized I had a leech stuck across the top of my foot.  Not having a lighter or salt around, and having never had a leech on me before I wasn't sure what to do.  Of course the wrong thing to do is rip it off and that is exactly what I did.  It bled a little but seemed to be fine...or so I thought...

We spent the rest of the day doing not much at all, Bert found a great spot to sit down and read, Moe did some reading as well.  I took a nap and Ted simply took in natures sounds.

Later that night we saw a moose come out near our site.  Seeing  moose in this habitat still is an amazing site even after having seen them so often in years past. 

Day 3