15 May, Spanish River day 1! Kade and I paddling the Sunburst, Nigel and Evan in the Bob Special, aka RedBoat. Drove to the Elbow and dropped off Nigel's car, picked up a driver from Fox Lake Lodge, drove to Duke Lake and pushed off at around 1700. Made it to the campsite on mid-Ninth Lake. Beautiful day with big tailwinds.
Mon 16 May, Spanish day 2. 1200 push off, proceeded through the lakes to First. Nice weather and again, big tailwinds. Saw a moose at the entrance to Sixth Lake, but it was apparently camera-shy... It scampered (can a 700 kg. animal scamper??) off into the brush before I could get my camera out.
We camped on the southernmost site across from "The Rampart." Had some fun with some of the swifts and with Cavana rapid which went perfectly to plan. Kade cut his thumb somehow gathering wood. Pretty badly too. I cleaned and bandaged it as well as I could but I'm a bit worried about infection. Not sure if he can paddle, not sure if I want him to try!
Tuesday 17 May, river day 3. Paddled out of First Lake into the unknown of the no-portage Drive Road Rapids. Nigel and Evan went in first and we didn't see them until we reached a right-hander with some decent haystacks. They had partially swamped and were bailing their boat in an eddy. After that all went well through Expanse Lake, Breadner Swifts, Kingfisher Swifts and finally the forks.
We pulled out at the portage for Upper Athalone Rapid, and at first glance it looked like a portage. But eventually I ran it solo in the Sunburst loaded, then went back and took RedBoat through empty, both just as far as the mid-portage campsite. We camped there. Best site of the trip so far! Nigel brought chili for all, mmmmm...
Wed. 18 May, River day 4. Started by re-scouting Upper Athalone from the campsite on. My plan was left side, Nigel's was right. Water was just high enough for him to squeak over the rocky weir at the bottom of the rapid. Both of us stuck to our plans and things worked out well. Next came Lower Athalone, this we ran also after a fair bit of scouting, both to plan. Hiked up by The Flume to Pogamasing Lake then came down and ran Railway rapid.
A quick boat scout of Bridge Rapid was enough, and on we went. Talked briefly to someone in the hamlet of Sheehan, he keeps a boat there and takes it up to his place on Pogamasing.
Next there were lots of swifts then a long stretch of flatwater before we arrived at Cliff rapids. This required only a quick scout before running. We camped at the lower of the two campsites on river left just below the rapid.
Thurs 19 May, River day 5. Started out at 1045. Uneventful but peaceful paddle through mostly flatwater to our campsite just below Spanish Lake. Rain started just above Spanish lake, and here, at 2200 the rain is still steadily falling on the tent. 10 k to the cars tomorrow! But should be an eventful 10k with a few rapids and lots of swifts to The Elbow.
Fri 20 May, River day 6. Awoke to the sound of the last few drops of yesterday's rain dropping from the trees to the tent fly. However beneath the singing of the birds and the dripping of water came the rumble of Zig-Zag Rapids less than a kilometer away. We made the short paddle to the portage trail and scouted. Kade and I played the eddies on river left while Nigel and Evan chose a route requiring less manouevering. Another short swifty paddle brought us to Toffelmire Rapid. There is no portage trail for Toffelmire nor a good spot to scout from. We slowed above the rapid and I asked Kade his opinion. He selected a center to river right line into a big eddy where the river swept to the left. From there we re-considered and he chose an S-turn into an eddy on river left. From there once again he selected an S-turn to an eddy on river right, but this took us through the biggest haystacks in the rapid. We paddled the line he chose but while going through the haystacks he went way up in the air up there in the bow seat, high enough he told me later, that he had "butterflies!" This was his first time completely reading a rapid then selecting our line, and it was well done. Probably exactly the line I would've chosen. After Toffelmire the river quickens and it was swift after swift to the Elbow where the cars were waiting for us. Good time had by all!
