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May 30, 2009 - Kiosk to Waterclear Lake - 3 portages totaling 2095 m

Got up early at home and ate a quick breakfast. Packed the remainder of the food and drove off into the pouring rain. Three and a half hours later we arrived at Algonquin North Outfitters on a bright sunny day. We paid for the canoe and as we were leaving, the owner came out and offerred us a free upgrade to an ultralight model, so we did not refuse. They also deliver the canoes to the lake at Kiosk for free, so we did not have to worry about tying it on the car (very convenient). The women in the store explained that it was easier for them to deliver the canoes than help people tie them to modern cars. We arrived at Kiosk to a fairly empty parking lot. Picked up our camping permit and set out on a calm lake in the glorious sunshine. About 45 minutes of paddling brought us to the first portage. Carried in one go, 635m, even with the heavy food pack. We wanted to eat lunch on the far side, but the mosquitos were very fierce so we paddled onto Little Mink Lake and ate in the canoe as we drifted along with a gentle breeze. The next portage was longer at 1300 m. It was a very smooth trail and a conveniently placed downed tree forced a mid portage break. Whitebirch lake is beautiful. Next time I will camp there. Paddled down to the end and our final short portage for the day. This one proved to be the most difficult as a bunch of trees were blown down. We arrived on Waterclear Lake in the early afternoon. Checked out the first two camp sites and ended up going back to the first as the second was wet and dammaged by blown down trees. Set up camp and took a brief nap in the tent to escape the bugs. It started to rain lightly after supper, so we went to bed early.

Getting ready to leave.




First portage.






Moose jaw we found on the portage.











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