Captain's log, day number eight paddling from Scoop Rapids to Pawistic on the Hanson Lake Highway:
We had a good morning, got up and cooked porridge and had a coffee and enjoyed the view over the rapids.
I packed up my canoe and got about a nine o'clock start. As I was paddling along I saw five otters swimming near the shore and when they saw me coming they started poking their heads up and staring at me just like little seals in the water. They were curious to see what I was and then Taiga spotted them and started barking so they took off.
I got it just a little over two kilometers up the river and I had the thought, “I feel like I’m missing something.” I couldn't remember if I put my yoke in my canoe, so I pulled over on the shore and had a look and sure enough, my yoke for carrying my canoe was missing and I absolutely need that for the rest of the trip. So I had to stop, turn around, and paddle two kilometers back to the campsite. Sure enough, there was my yoke on the ground where the canoe was tied up. The yoke was turned upside down so the blue padding was facing the ground and the rest of the yoke looked like a dried piece of driftwood so it was camouflage on the shore. I ALSO realized that I left my fishing rod which was in the tall grass, so I managed to pick up both my fishing rod and my yoke so I was very happy to get that put in the boat and paddle back towards the Hanson Lake Highway. I just added another four kilometers on to what was already a 15 kilometer paddle.
Anyhow, I was very sluggish that day. The rest of the days are catching up to me and my body's feeling tired and sore. When I hit some narrow sections of the current, it was really tough pulling the canoe to get over top of the fast moving current. It was really wearing me out. I knew Bill Jeffery and the crew were waiting for me at the highway campsite, and I was hoping to be there around 11 o'clock Saskatchewan time, but I didn't even get to Leaf Rapids until 12 o'clock. Leaf Rapids are the last rapids before the highway.
I saw Dave and Bill were waiting for me on the other side of the rapids.We had lunch there and Bill was kind enough to make me a cucumber and dry meat sandwich and gave me an apple, an orange and a banana. Wow, that was nice. The portage was about 100 meters across, so they helped me get my gear over and then we went to the campsite where my father in law Greg Foord was there and he was happy to see me. He had a whole bunch of stuff that he had brought from both Saralyn and himself. He brought me some special little items like a knife sharpener, snare wire, extra matches and some candies, so that was kind of nice.
I unpacked my stuff and Dave let me know that my line cutter Larry Sewap who was supposed to paddle with me wasn’t going to make it, so he decided he was going to go back to his cabin at Tyrell Lake and get his other canoe and join Bill and I for a while. We ended up taking the rest of the day to organize that. They left their gear with me until the next day, which was fine. I ran into Angie and Andy and they invited me to come over and have a shower at their place. It was very nice.
I had a hot shower and they gave me some refreshments. Oh they let me charge my cell phone and that was very nice of them and I couldn't thank them enough. Then I went back to the campsite and I met some guys that were there from Medicine Hat. They were hanging out doing some fishing and they had a visit with and gave us a beer to drink, which was really nice after getting off the water.
Anyhow, that was the end of day number eight.
Over.