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May 12, 2025 - Boulder Creek
It rained a little last night, but only really manged to wake me up and give a prompt to button up the
tent fly. At least the temperature was warmer than the previous night, so sleeping was fairly comfortable.
The first section of trail was fairly easy going while walking high up on a ridge above Lake Temiskaming, with a couple
of nice view points which served as places to take a break. The blow down along here was not too bad either. When
we descended down towards Ottertail Creek, we could here a monsterous roar of
rapidly moving water and upon getting closer
spied a fairly substantial waterfall. The trail turned into an ATV track which followed along the shore of the creek
for about a kilometer until reaching the marked ford of the OTHT. This was to be the crux of the whole trip as we had
been warned that Murray's group were unable to cross on foot about a week earlier.
The raging water looked not too bad to me, and I figured I could ford it. I set out across the rocky rapids, probing
with my poles to find good footing. I only made it about half way across, where the water just became too deep to keep
going without getting swept off my feet. I returned back to the eastern bank where Debbie was waiting. Fortunately,
just below the rapids, the river was substantially deeper, meaning that the current was manageably slower. This of
course meant swimming instead of fording, but I had come prepared with some large garbage bags to float my pack in.
Deb was not too sure of this plan, but I tried to assure her that it would work. She still was not convinced so I
figured there was only one way... I would have to prove it. I put my pack in the garbage bags along with an inflated
sleeping pad for floatation and tried to seal this package as best as I could with
duct tape. Then I plunged into the frigid water and
swam across, pushing the floating pack ahead of me.
Within about a minute I had reached the far bank about 30m away. Piece of cake, though I was slightly chilled from the
immersion in the ice cold water. Now for Deb. I swam back across
with the sleeping pad and garbage bags, and she sealed up her pack in a similar fashion. I was now really cold, so
while she was preparing I tried to get warm by doing jumping jacks in the sunshine, but as my t-shirt was soaking wet
this had little useful effect.
Once Deb's pack was ready, I gave her the sleeping pad and I took her pack and swam the river a third time, anxious to
get this over with and back to my dry clothing which was on the far side. I climbed out of the river and was shivering
uncontrollably at this point. Knowing I was entering the first stages of hypothermia now, I quickly stripped out of my
wet clothes, put on dry layers, and even donned my down jacket to sit in the sunshine and warm up. This worked, but it
was not until we got moving again that my body returned to normal.
Attempting the ford of Ottertail Creek
Turning this hike into a biathlon
Deb swimming across on my sleeping pad
A little ways further along the trail we hiked by the waterfall we had seen earlier. A ledge right beside the roar of
the water provided a very dramatic place to spend some time for our lunch. After satiating our hunger, a rugged and
blow down filled adventure followed as we traversed alongside the shore of Lake Temiskaming. Point Camp, our intended
destination for the day did not look very nice so we pushed on to Boulder Creek. This site was much more suitable,
though somewhat debris strewn by a large fallen tree which buried the fire pit. It had a nice kitchen
area by the creek however, and given we arrived mid-afternoon we got to spend the first bit of time on this trip
relaxing. Though we have enough food for one more night, we are going to try to push on to the truck tomorrow.
Lunch spot at Ottertail Falls
Boulder Creek camp
Hike Time: 8 hours
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