George River Solo 2018

Day 20
Start Time: 8/3/2018 7:35 AM
Duration: 7:32
Distance / Total (km): 21.3 / 258.8

I woke up at 5:30am, now 13°c in the tent, clear skies outside and although I cannot see to the east, it is clear the sun is just coming up, there is a breeze from the southwest, and I truly hope this is the start of a stretch of good weather. I can hear the small rapids downstream, time to pack up and move. I drank the lukewarm tea in my Thermos, packed and started taking the loads down. It is easier than coming up but still the gravel is unstable and it is very steep. Fully loaded and on my way at the unbelievable time of 7:35AM, that will definitely put it in the top three departure times for this trip.

I went through the small islands, quite shallow between some of them. There are a couple of small rapids in the narrow section leading to Lac Advance, then another when I turned north. The wind was a bit stronger now, from the west, a modest annoyance that slowed me down somewhat in the open sections. Lac Advance is littered with small islands, points and big boulders, the GPS came in handy several times. There is good current in these narrows that twist back and forth and with the sun essentially directly overhead easy to become confused. It does not help that I was absently floating at times taking in the beautiful conditions. I stopped at the flat rock campsite at the north end of Advance, while it is large and clear, the rock has formed to create large puddles, and what is dry is a bit on the wavy side. There is one small flat tent spot on dirt/moss at the very back.

Before the next marked rapid is an island with an R2 on either side, I went right although from the bottom the left looked easier. I then prepared for the main dish, 2 x R2/3 followed by an R3. The first pair was accurately classed, not difficult, the R3 is fairly narrow and steep, a couple of good sized holes to avoid and big waves to plow through. I took on some water and need to pump and sponge at the bottom.

As the river narrows again there were a number of spots on river right that looked ok for camping, quite a nice stretch here with exposed rock outcrops.

I was nervous about the approach to The Three Gorges, The entrance to the first and longest of the three is hidden behind a small island, one can only sense the current moving in that direction. Around the bend, there is a medium size island with rapids on either side; beyond it are the two other gorges. In 2010, we had gone left of the island, run a small rapid and then spent a couple of hours wandering around looking for the actual portage. This time I went to the right side sticking close to the left shore, as I neared the end of the island I could see the beginning of the easterly gorge, all nice smooth water but it would be deadly if one was sucked around the corner. When I reached the island tip I could see the start of the middle gorge perhaps 100m to my left, all I could see there was a horizon line and what was clearly a huge initial drop. I scanned for any signs, a break in the tall alder wall on the other side of the channel. According to the GPS it should be ”right there” but I saw nothing. I walked the boat up the other side of the island a few metres to get a good takeoff to cross the channel, after crossing of course, it was obvious my fears were excessive but you can never be too careful.

I landed on the rocks and started hunting around for any signs of a portage or even a natural opening in the wall of green. Finding nothing, I just bashed my way through, more ugliness behind, fallen trees, hidden rocks but I eventually stumbled into a small clearing where I found traces of a trail. I followed it back to water and emerged through the alders a couple of metres from the canoe. I hoisted the first load and headed through the bushes, the trail varies from faint to obvious, hard to follow in some places, at one spot there is a sudden drop as you cross a tiny overflow channel, hop across on slippery rocks and scramble up the other side. It is not much further to a small clearing with an old fire ring and space for a couple of tents. I dropped the load and headed back to the canoe, following the trail is more of a challenge on the return trip; I wandered off a couple of times. It was 30 minutes round trip, with the third load, I had all the essential items to set up camp but I decided to go back for the last stuff leaving just the canoe, paddles etc. for later (or more likely tomorrow). I set up the Pod and moved in taking plenty of time to recover from the portaging effort. Went on a big bug kill, besides the regular black flies there was also a bunch of horse flies to deal with.

I had some snacks and eventually got out the stove for tea and a bag of Chili Macaroni with Beef (Mountain House), taste is reasonable, a little thin on calories (580CAL) but easy to finish fast! I should really eat the orange I did not eat yesterday or this morning or on the water or right after the portage, the orange was wonderful! Before passing out for the night I ordered up a weather forecast, mostly sunny with little chance of rain for the next 48 hours, I am pretty sure tomorrow is going to be a layover day and for once strictly by choice and not spent entirely huddled inside.