• Herm and I got up at 7:00 am and started breakfast. Everyone else got up at 7:30. We had blueberry pancakes. The group was not too hungry today.
• On the water at 9:00 am. The weather was very nice with low humidity, a high of 70 degrees, and a few scattered clouds.
• We started our first portage at 10:00 am. This portage has been called the "Portage from Hell" by folks who have traveled it before. We found it tough but we have been on worse. There were loads of blueberries and some bear scat along the portage. The guide map shows this portage to be about 1.55 kilometers (km) but we were able to short cut to a stream due to the water levels being high. Maybe we should have done the whole route to get the full flavor and judge it appropriately, but we were satisfied to do the shortened version. Everyone was done with the portage by 11:30.
• A short windy paddle across Lac Cornelier led us to portage no. 2. This portage was 360 meters (m). It was muddy and narrow.
• We ate our lunch of cheese, crackers, and summer sausage at the end of the portage.
• We were back on the water (Lac de la Triple Baie) at 1:10 PM. It was very windy and a long pull into a headwind to our campsite on the North end of the Lake. We arrived at 2:15 PM.
• Today’s paddling partners were John and Pat, Andrew and Dan, Herm and Walt, with Tom paddling solo. All went well.
• The afternoon was spent reading, playing cards, site improvement, napping, and just plain relaxing.
• We ate supper (Turkey Tettrazini) at 7:15 PM.
• It rained lightly off and on throughout the afternoon, evening, and into the night. We had a nice sunset.
• All were in bed early.

August 7

• Up at 6:45 (Herm & I) to cloudy, windy, 50 degree whether. Fog was rising off the water.
• Hot cereal and Denver omelets for breakfast.
• We started out with the portage (120 meters) around the falls and were on the water at 9:30. We had a quartering tailwind.
• Andrew started out solo. He was having trouble with the tail wind and technique so we conferenced and Tom agreed to resume his role as solo paddler. This worked out very well.
• The pairings for the day were John & Dan, Andrew & Pat, Tom, and Herm & I. All worked well.
• This was the day of the six portages (not counting the one at the falls). They are not well maintained nor are they well marked. You need to be looking for surveyor’s tape. The portage from Lac Fard to Lac Tartara shows as 55 meters on the map but is actually about 300 to 350 meters. It crosses a newly constructed logging road and disappears into the underbrush. There is a 50-meter portage from Lac Tartara to Lac du Bac that does not show on the guide map.
• We arrived at our campsite on Lac Hawkesbery at 3:45 and finished our lunch then. We had consumed our snacks between portages.
• Our campsite is nicely located high on a rocky knoll. There was room for only two tents with our third tent being a very tight squeeze. The larger site on the Lake was already occupied.
• The lake water was cool and the clearest we have encountered so far. All the other lakes had brown water from tannin similar to Adirondack Lakes. Everyone went swimming for a long time. The rest of the afternoon was spent as on previous days. No fish were caught today.
• The weather turned very nice in the afternoon with low humidity, deep blue sky with scattered clouds and a high temperature hovering around 65 degrees.
• We ate dinner at ~ 8:00 (lasagna).
• George Lorifice and Walt Straub of Manlius, New York paddled by our site as we were finishing dinner. They talked with us for awhile. It turns out that they are occupying the large and only other campsite on the Lake. They are a party of eight and are spending a week fishing and canoeing. George had provided me with a lot of information when I was planning this trip. This included the loan of his maps and access to write-ups of his past trips, which originally were scouts and adults, but are now adults only. I am very grateful to George for his time and knowledge.
• Herm and I laid on a rock ledge and watched the stars, shooting stars, satellites, and the Milky Way, which was very bright. In effect we were watching the earth turn. One sees so many more stars when there is no city glow. We went to bed at midnight. The scouts had gone to bed around 10:00 PM.

• Herm & I were up at 6:45 to another day of low humidity and clear skies. Breakfast consisted of pancakes, Denver omelets, and hot cereal.
• During breakfast, Tom hooked a large fish but was unable to land it.
• On the water at 10:00 am. We stopped by to visit with George and the group from Manlius but they were all out fishing. The site they were occupying was very spacious with room for 5 or 6 tents and a nice sandy beach.
• A perfect day for paddling; blue sky with scattered white clouds, low humidity, wit a high of 75 degrees.
• We had three portages today. The last two were the best maintained of all the portages. However, the mosquitoes were the worst we have encountered on the whole trip. They were particularly bad at the put-ins and take-outs which were very muddy.
• The stretch between Lac des Bays and Petite Lac des Bays was a welcomes stretch of narrow and winding stream. It would be nice to do a long river section like this.
• One comment I must make is that there is a lot of trash on the portages and in many of the tent sites. The worst was at Chute Renault which was near a logging road and an old hunting / fishing camp. There were many cans scattered around and there was a large, partially buried, cache of cans bottles and other trash that was partially buried. The trash situation is a very big disappointment.
• We ate lunch at a hunting / fishing camp on a small unnamed lake after our last portage. This camp was dilapidated and trash strewn. Another shining bad example.
• We arrived at our final campsite on Lac Dragon 3:45. This site is quite nice, wide open, high on an esker, with water on three sides.
• After washing the mud from the canoes, Andrew worked on the last of his requirements for canoeing merit badge assisted by Dan and John. The rest of the afternoon and evening was filled with the usual: cards, reading, writing, napping, etc.
• We ate dinner of sweet and sour pork at 7:30 PM. After that we sat around the campfire and critiqued the whole trip (from food to conditions and everything in between).

• Our last day of the trip.
• Up at 7:00. Breakfast was cold granola cereal with milk and the usual hot cereals.
• On the water at 8:45 for a relatively short paddle to the last of our portages (110 meters).
• Dan and Andrew are very happy to be on their final leg of the trip. They wanted to return home ASAP to visit their girl friends.
• Instead of doing the last portage (964 meters) Herm and I walked ~ 2 miles along dirt roads to get the cars.
• We were loaded and on our way back to Fayetteville by 11:00 am.
• I arrived home at ~8:15 PM after driving 441 miles. The unloading was done expeditiously by Herm & I, but the clean up and storing all the gear will take a few days to accomplish.
• Every one made it back in good health with just insect bites and minor blisters and abrasions.

Walt Shepard