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Day 13 Time: 10 hrs 55 min Distance: 33.6 km (210) Steve woke me at 8:00; I was up at 8:30, conditions on the water looked good although we are very sheltered. We are doing our version of a quick departure, at 10:30 we set off under cloudy skies. We have lofty goals today, the high water enables us to easily paddle over the little spit of land that might normally require a short portage or a 3 km paddle around the long narrow peninsula, we emerge and set our sights on the next point, a channel between the shore and a large thin island. It was slow but steady progress; we had a quick break then turned slightly to the Northeast to hit the next point. Here we had a shore break on a narrow beach. The sun was starting to emerge, somewhat surprisingly this lead to less wind, so nice I figured it was safe to head straight to our exit point across open water instead of taking the much longer close to the shore route., this would put us at least 3km from the closest shore, normally a bit risky but the conditions were so perfect and were only getting better. By the middle point of the crossing we had dead calm, the water reflecting the skies with only a subtle wave effect. We stopped every 40 - 50 minutes for a break of 10 - 20 or even 30 minutes, we could just float, out boats slowly spinning but not actually moving in any particular direction. The end of the lake grew nearer, what had once been nothing more than a faint blur in the distance is finally getting in hand. Looking back it's impossible to see land where we have come from. We had a lunch break at a convenient rock a couple of km's before the channel to Negassa Lake starts.
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The rapid here is a big volume, wide CI, approaching CII if you intentionally hit the biggest stuff, a second section of CI follows, likely just a swift at normal levels, we took the direct right channel, there is a swift where it enters Negassa. The lake crossing went well; not quite the dead calm but the gentle headwind was not a problem. I headed correctly toward the outflow channel, at the top I stopped to pull out my spray deck for the first time, in retrospect I should have added my drysuit to the mix but I figured the most I would see would be a splash and given how hot and sunny it was it just didn't seem worth the effort. We headed into the first rapid, a CII with volume, easy to pick your way through, with the deck in place I was able to get out and enjoy some of the sizable waves, in general this is a left/center left run with the finish on either side. There is strong current in the next section that leads to the CIII, lots of big waves and a few nasties to avoid, it is also mostly a leftish run and lots of fun. I took a couple of lapfuls but actually less than on the previous CII, it's great to finally have a little excitement, there has really been very little over the previous two weeks.
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We are now entering Shethanie Lake and officially finished with the South Seal. It's about 2km to the campsite; in calm water we make the final turn. I can see the drumlin but the site itself is unrecognizable from my previous visit in 2006. There is virtually no beach now, we have to use relatively poor access to the main camp trail, several spots further back are under water, I'd bet it would be a very wet hike if we wanted to get back inland to the actual drumlin. As we land and unload rain showers start, thunder is rumbling in the distance but nothing develops other than intermittent showers over the following hours. It's been a very long day but we have accomplished much. We changed out of our wet clothes, got settled into the hut and tried to recharge. Tea, cheese, crackers, jerky followed much later by Jose's Chicken Mole (Backpackers Pantry and not one of the better ones) next up Ginger Teriyaki Stir Fry - remind me, Never Again! Now thoroughly stuffed, imagine I'll be off to bed soon as it's after 1:00am and I'm very tired.
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