Day 4: Cook / Timbuktu Landing to Crane Lake

We finished Day 4 after 11 hours 44 minutes and 34 seconds of paddling, portaging, navigating the fog, swatting flies and chasing down the canoes ahead of us.

Whew! What a ride this has been. What a great team I was blessed to be with. We ended up 5th Place 4 person team, 8th overall. Border to Border in 40:50:18.

After another night of less than ideal sleep (cue the freight trains rolling by out the window), we hit the Timbuktu Landing for the 5:30 AM start of the canoe leg (leave the hotel at 4:15 AM). Without coffee by the way, so it was less than ideal conditions (outside it was 48 degrees with some overcast and fog). The loons called before the start, and it was an amazing sunrise.

Susan and Susan took the first (and definitely toughest) leg with the longest and most portages. While they were trying to not get lost (they did but only for a little bit) and slogging through tough and muddy portages, Gina and I had nice breakfast and tried hard not to feel guilty.  Gina and I caught up with them and cheered them on as well as the other teams at the end of the Table Rock Falls portage. Susan and Susan did an incredible job and we were really proud of them especially after hearing from others that exchanged here just how tough the portages were.

We met them at the Buyck bridge and then it was our turn.

Gina and I got the honors of paddling the “Snake Pit”, so called because through this stretch the river winds and turns endlessly.  Just around the next bend is yet another bend. It is incredibly pretty though, and the paddling is pretty easy. We put in just as another boat arrived at the landing so I wanted to get a good lead on them if I could.

We charged ahead and Gina, with her 2 hours of previous canoe experienced proved to be a fine paddler. She made up for her lack of experience with her competitive spirit and unwavering determination. She paddled and swatted the flies away (for some odd reason they only bothered her, we deduced that my layering of bug spray then sunscreen was more effective than sunscreen then bug spray). As we hit the only portage at Chipmunk falls, I thought I saw another boat approaching. So there was no time to dilly dally, not that we wanted to stand around in ankle to knee deep mud. As we shoved off, we could see another boat ahead of us, and we did our best to chase them down. It took a while, but we finally caught up with them – it was Dan and Cindy (Ya Sures). Off in the distance ahead of them was Kate and Abby (3 Hot Chicks and a Cabana Boy). So off we went to see if there was enough river left to catch them as well. We eventually did and then it wasn’t long before we hit the next portage at High Falls. We exchanged Sue J for Gina and I grabbed the boat and headed up the portage. It was really pretty, and if I could ever go back just to look at the falls and rapids, I’d love to. Smelling the roses will have to wait.

It was a bit of a blur after this. Susan J and I put in just below the rapids but we still had to negotiate some rocks and shallow water and we ended up getting out and walking the canoe across the rocks. It didn’t take long and we were at the final portage. Susan took the first half (all of the uphill too – thanks!). The backside was some steep, slippery and muddy downhill, but the worst part was the bugs were pretty thick through here. After what seemed like a pretty long time we heard voices ahead of us. It was a family in a house boat splashing in the bay and we hit the water for the home stretch. I knew it was only a mile and half or so. We could see the first buoy pretty quickly, and then finally the finish line buoy! Woo hoo. Susan executed a dandy cross bow turn, just to do Carl and Rick from the MCA proud. We paddled past the buoy to the cheers of our friends and team mates and did the ceremonial canoe dump. We were done! My Garmin said I went 27 miles in 6 hours for a 4.5 mph avg speed. Not too shabby for a bunch of newbies.

The cold water of Crane Lake beckons

Todd