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July 6, 2012 - Return to Lake Panache Access - 14 km paddle, 3 portages
Got up at the crack of dawn and packed up camp while the sun rose. Paddled out onto the lake into brilliant sunshine
and a gentle breeze. Unbelievable! Another fantastic weather day. This was appreciated as the crossing of Lake
Panache would be difficult in windy conditions. The first portage was short and quick. There were over a half
dozen boats in various states of repair scattered around the put in. A nice paddle was had across Basson Lake,
weaving among the many small
islands. The next portage was just over two kilometers long. Only about three boats were stashed here, and they all
looked servicable this time. The carry was easy and covered in about 40 minutes. At one point I met two fishermen
coming from the other direction. They did not see me at first however. I was just about to say something before they
walked into me, when one of them looked up, visibly startled as an upside down canoe hovering six feet in the air came
bearing down on them. After recovering from the initial shock, we said a pleasant hello and continued on our ways.
Arrived at Lake Panache and had a quick snack before departing. We then paddled out and meandered thorugh many small
islands dotted with cottages. The lake was quiet though, and we did not see any other boats or even very few people at
any of the cottages. We decided to take a short portage rather than paddling around a long peninsula as it was a
different route than we had taken on our way in. Took a quick swim prior to the carry as the day was now quite hot,
but the water refreshingly cool. Katja decided to carry the boat this one, as now the food pack was light, and the
carry was short at about 300m in length. This is probably the first time I have ever done a portage to arrive at the
same lake I had started on. Yes, a carry from Lake Panache to Lake Panache... productive! The final four or five
kilometers of paddling was across very open water. Since the wind was still calm this was no problem. Passed some
interesting cottages on our paddle back to the marina. One had a terraced set of gardens built into old oil tanks and a
guest house build out of some other large cylindrical tank. Arrived back at the marina around noon, packed up the car,
enjoyed some ice cream and drove home.
Sunrise over High Lake.
Lots of boats... we do not feel too far in the back country here.
Start of my final portage, 2.2 km to Lake Panache. Note spare boats in background.
At the end of the portage, someone had actually cached an ATV.
Paddling out onto Lake Panache and mirror calm water.
Final portage from Lake Panache to Lake Panache.
Wide open stretch of water. Thankfully it is not windy.
End of the line.
The End
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