Spring 2009 Trip Log - Part 2   I woke relatively early the next morning and the first thing was a good hot cup of coffee.  I sat along the side of the lake and enjoyed the morning for awhile, until my grumbling stomach told me it was time for breakfast.  I made myself a plateful of bacon and eggs with my own fried potatoes and again sat on the shores of the lake enjoying my breakfast.  After doing the dishes, I slowly began to pack up the camp and get ready to move on to Big Bob.  I didn't have far to travel this day, so I very leisurley brought everything down and packed  the canoe.  I checked my camp for any signs of my passage that I may have left behind ( I like to leave a site in the same or better condition than I found it).  As I was just about to slide the boat into the water my attention was drawn down the lake towards the entrance to the portage to Indian Pipe.  from around the bend in the shoreline came a female moose.....followed closely by another.  What luck.  Two moose in the same area, at the same time.  I launched the boat and slowly paddled my way towards them in order to get some pics.  They both were a little skittish and casually meandered into the forest before I could get too close.          As I listened to pair head off into the bush, I unloaded the canoe and headed down the portage to Indian Pipe with my pack and camera.  Like the campsite I had just left, this portage is designated as a low maintenance trail.  It was far from that.  Although there were several muddy areas along the way, the trail itself was completely clear of downfalls.  It had the appearance of being used and well maintained.  I was happy about that.  The short trip didn't take long and I returned for the canoe.  I paddled across Indian Pipe and again unloaded the boat for the first trip along the portage to West Koko Pond.  Again, the trail was clear and easy to navigate.  There were some small blockages to this portage , but they were easily avoided. West Kok Pond was just that....a pond.  Perhaps only a thousand feet long, the still waters of Koko Pond were inviting.  I thought to myself how nice it would be if there was a campsite on this body of water.  It was completely sheltered from the wind and I'm sure it would be a peaceful area to stay.  The end of the lake where Chia-bia-bos entered was a marshy, bog-like area and I assume that was where the moose I had seen earlier came from.     West Koko Pond    The next portage was a little more like a low maintenance trail.  There were numerous deadfalls and muddy areas along this portage, but all in all it wasn't that hard to negotiate.  It took me about half an hour to do the two trips and I was soon on the lake where I would set up my second camp.  Big Bob was a longer lake, but again the waters were still.  I was hoping to get the campsite at the far end of the lake, but I paddled over to the campsite across from the portage first, to check it out.  A large rocky outcropping denoted the landing for this campsite and I had a little difficulty finding a spot to pull the boat up onto shore.  Once I did, I explored the campsite to find little area for tents and only a small firepit, located almost on top of the rock outcropping.  Someone had built several wind blocks with cut timber around the site, which made me wonder just how windy this lake got.  All in all, it was not a nice site (low maintenance for sure). I jumped back in the boat and headed down the lake to check out the other site...hoping it was vacant.  As I did, I could see another beaver swimming around ahead of me.  I put the paddle down across the gunwhales and let the canoe drift slowly acrosss the lake towards the busy little guy.  This time the camera was out and I was ready for him.  He was swimming casually around the lake, eagerly munching on a tree branch as he swam.       This guy eventually slapped his tail and submerged under the water, only to come back up again further down the lake...still munching on his vegetarian breakfast.       Two shots of Big Bob Lake:  The first is looking towards the western campsite from the portage and the second is looking  east towards the far end of the lake and the other camp.       I eventually came around the point at the far end of the lake, only to find that someone was at the campsite I was hoping for.  I guess he saw the look of disappointment on my face and kindly greeted me.  "looking for a campsite?" he asked.  "I'm just packing up and I'll be out of here in about twenty minutes....it's all yours if you want it?" I thanked him for his generosity and pulled tha canoe up to the landing to talk to him for a while.  The solo paddler was heading out of the park today thee way I had come and I soon found out that he had just completed the same loop I was doing, only from the other direction.  I asked him how conditions were along the route and he broke out his park map to show me a few things.  He explained to me that there were sections of the Nip that were choked with alders and I should give myself plenty of time to treverse that section of the river.  He also gave me good news with respect to several wall-maintained campsites along the way that I planned to use.  We talked as he completed his packing and then loaded up his old cedar strip solo and headed out onto the lake for the final leg of his journey.  It never occured to me to ask him his name! Once he was gone I unloaded the canoe and set up my site for the next day. It must have been near lunchtime when I finally finnished setting up camp (like I said I don't wear a watch in the bush), because I was getting hungry.  More KD...mmmmm.  After lunch I decided to take the boat out and paddle around the lake.  It was a little windy, so I stayed really close to shore.  I eventually made my way down to the portage to the Nip and decided to give it a look see.  Again, this portage was realtively clear of obstacles and was easy to traverse.  The stream emptying into the Nip is shallow hereand you have to negotiate a small beaver dam to get into the main part of the river, but after that it is more than wide enough to paddle.   The waterfall flowing from Big Bob   Looking west and east along the Nip from the portage   On the way back to Big Bob I found myself trapped between two chattering ground squirrels.  I had evedently interupted something important that they were doing, because they gave me a world of shit (in squirrel, of course).  I stopped to ask them what the problem was, but neither of them seemed to understand me...lol.  They weren't too happy with having their picture taken either.       I returned to Big Bob (much to the delight of my nut gathering friends) and headed back up the lake to camp.  The next couple of hours was spent relaxing by the water, until it began to grow a little gloomy.  Weather was moving in fast (as it often does in Alonquin) and I cleaned up the campsite and headed under one of my tarps to cook some supper.  Tonight's menu consisted of chicken fajitas and I sat under the tarp eating and watching the rain approach.  It rained throughout the nigh that night, with gusts if wind that I thought would take my tarps away, but when I awoke the next morning all had grown calm.  There was a thick, grey mist on the lake as I packed up and headed down to to the portage to start my journey down the Nip.   The Nip on Friday morning (cloaked in mist)   Paddling down the Nip was peaceful, if not serene.  It was almost like floating through a cloud at times, with the low hanging mist gripping me and my boat.  The rain returned shortly after I departed the put-in and continued for several hours.  The camera stayed in its protective bag all this time, coming out only when a good photo opportunity came along.  This area of the Nip was open and wide, making it easy to navigate.  It continued that way for some time before the tree line slowly came closer and closer to the meandering river.  It was here that I had to negotiate my first portage of the day.  A little affair of only 65 meters.  It was a rocky landing and put in on the other side, but easily negotiated.  I took this opportunity to try my luck in the pool at the bottom for some specks.  I was rewarded almost immediately with two little specks of about 6" each.  I tossed them back and sat on the rocks nibbling on a breakfast bar for a few moments, before getting back in the boat to continue my journey.     Looking upstream and then downstream from the put in   I was back in the boat now, but not for long, as the next portage was only a short paddle down the river.  I was hoping to run this rapid, but the water level was too low and there were large boulders scattered along the way.  So I hauled out the gear and made the short portage.  The pool at the bottom of this portage looked inviting, so I took 15 minutes to cover it with a series of fan-casts.  I hauled in a few more speckies, but nothing more than a few inches in length, along with a couple of whitefish.  At least they looked like whitefish.     Views upstream and downstream from the second portage   I was paddling again, making my way to the next portage which was not too far away.  This area was unnegotiable as well, so I had to carry again.  These little portage, although small and easy to deal with, were annoying.  I would rather that they were either longer, making it worth the effort, or not there at all.  None the less, I completed the portage and continued down the Nip once again.       The bottom of rapids at portage # 5   The fourth and fifth portages were relatively close together and slightly longer.  I could not avoid doing the first one, as it bypassed a waterfall, but I decided to try my luck with the second one.  The water looked deep enough to allow me to run this set of rapids, but I was worried about the rocks.  My canoe is kevlar, but not indestructable.  I allowed the boat to slowly make its own way towards the short rapids, allowing me time to scan the approaching obstacles and search out a route around them.  All was going well, until about half way down, the river dropped about a foot over a submerged log in teh middle of the run.  There was nothing I could do at this point, so I allowed the boat to slowly follow the flow over the log.  I was about 3/4 of the way over it and happy the boat wasn't scraping the bottom, when I heard the awful scraping sound of my hull on the submerged wood.  The boat hung there on the log, awkwardly balanced halfway over.  What was I going to do now?  I grabbed my other, more used paddle from the bottom of the boat and tested the "hang up"  by pushing away with all my might.  The boat came loose rather easily and continued down the rapids to wards the pond below.  I examined the bottom of my boat to see if there was any water coming in from the area of the awful noise and was pleased that there wasn't.  Hmmm...maybe it would be better just to do the portages!  After this I allowed the boat to drift on its own down the Nip as I munched on a couple of muffin bars and drank some Tang.  The treeline had narrowed in considerably and was now parallelling the Nip rather closely.  The rain had gone and the sky had cleared up nicely in the last couple of hours, allowing the sun to dry up what moisture remained in the boat.  I glanced overhead to find that I was being overflown by a solitary eagle.  He circled me several times, checking me out, and then continued on his journey, looking for something to eat I assume.   The shoreline of the Nip as I paddled    The circling eagle    Spring 2009 Trip Log - Part 3