Triplogs / Triplog#57 / Day 2 / Day 3 / Days 4&5 / Day 6 / Day 7/ Days 8&9
May 15 - Day 8 - Another lazy day at the cabin
Mike enjoys a coffee before heading out into the sunny morning
It was 6:30 am when I finally got up and looked out the cabin window facing East. It was sunny, there was a moose feeding on the East shoreline and somewhere a loon was calling. It just doesn't get any better! We decided to just hang around the cabin and relax. Mike had brought along a solar shower, boiled some water, and poured it into the the shower bag, providing a warm shower. It felt great to be clean again, I felt like a million dollars. I went for a lone hike, heading East again looking for the Osler fire tower. I hit the wall of trees and decided on a different course. I headed up off the road. Sure enough I hit another old logging road. I got it into my head that if I kept climbing up perpendicular to the road(s), I'd find more roads, sort of like an open pit mine. Well the idea worked for I came upon the remnants of road after road, till I reached the top of a ridge and walked along a fairly large clearing through the forest. With early spring it was a great walk as the tree foliage had not grown in yet and one could see a great distance.
Looking outside I noticed that the buds
were beginning to flourish
History of the Birchcliffe Cabin
I worked my way over towards what I thought might be a hill in the distance, that would be where the old firetower had possibly been located. I walked for a an hour or so, and at one point to my astonishment, seemed to be further away from the hill in question rather than getting closer to it. It didn't make sense. I was fine, I had plenty of water and cheese & crackers with me. All of which I had been ingesting along my travel, so I didn't think i was disoriented. I decided at this point to turn around and took a different route back, descending towards Birchcliffe Lake. Well that was a silly decision, for the next hour and a half, I struggled to walk through dense bush, fallen trees, and just generally hilly downward sloping terrain. The bush was quite thick in places, forcing me to crawl under and over fallen trees, thick tangled bush, etc. Eventually I came across a stream that I knew emptied into the lake, and followed it till I came across an old trail, and eventually I found the old road out behind the cabin, and made my way back. I saw many signs of moose along the way but didn't see much, just a few birds here and there.
Cow mooose
The cabin among the colours of the setting sun
The next year, I talked about my attempt to reach the fire tower with Carmen up at the Kiosk permit office. She is very knowledgeable about this area of The Park, and is a real treat to talk to. Carmen, too was familiar with the phenomenon of the fire tower hill appearing to become more distant the closer you got to it. Carmen had in fact reached the hill where the fire tower was. From both our descriptions, I had the correct hill in mind, but the way to it was very overgrown, with Cramen mentioning that the best way to find would be with a map and compass. Next time I will take a more detailed map and bring my compass along and give it a good try.
An evening paddle near the confluence of
Raven & Birchcliffe Creeks
It was a beautiful spring day, the kind that stick in your memory for years, and I was sorry that we had to leave the next day, I just wanted the day to go on forever. By 7:00 pm, Mike & I decided to go out for an evening paddle, I also wanted to hit the marsh where Raven & Birchcliffe creeks joined, it would be a good spot to look for wildlife at dusk. We paddled around the lake, spotting three moose, and a Canada geese. As we entered the creek, we saw beaver and ducks, but nothing more. In the setting sun, we could see thousands of bugs rising from the marsh. With the sounds, sights & scents, we could feel the marsh was coming alive. It was a nice evening paddle and as the sun disappeared behind the horizon we headed back to the cabin where despite the warmth of the evening I lit the stove and piled in some firewood for our last night stay at the cabin.
Last sunset on Birchcliffe Lake
May 16 - Day 9 - Goodbye Birchcliffe Cabin
Mike takes a picture of the morning mist
prior to our departure from the cabin
I was up really early(by my standards), and was outside at 5:38 am taking pictures of the morning mist that was over Birchcliffe Lake. It looked to be another beautiful spring day, sunny, not too hot, no bugs or people. Well I knew we'd probably see people this day, but it had been awesome, for the last seven days we didn't see or hear a soul. That is the longest I had gone without ever seeing another person in APP, this area was just fantastic, we saw moose practically everyday on Birchcliffe Lake. As I mentioned before it just didn't get any better. Finally at 5:54 am the sun peeked over the horizon, burning through the morning mist, it was one of the best sunrises yet. For over an hour Mike & I took pictures as we ate breakfast and packed up. Our last duty was to clean the cabin, stove, fire-pit, etc. The idea being to leave the cabin in better shape then we found it. Satisfied with our work, we bid 'farewell' to our cabin and left just before 8:00 am.
Much had changed in a week's time, the
alders had sprouted green,
making Mike hungry!
Our trip down Birchcliffe Creek was much easier, aided with the current now being with us, instead of against us. We noticed changes though, in just one week, the level of the water had dropped significantly, and there was lots of green popping out from the surrounding alder bush. We also spied some pretty big fish in the creek, we assumed they were brook trout, but never tried to fish for them as when we were coming up the creek, our rods kept getting snagged in the alders. This time around, we had them buried below the gunnels, safe from grasping alder bush. By 10:30 am, we emerged onto Biggar Lake. We pulled ashore to take a break. We had made good time so far, but we still had a long way to go. The plan was to camp on the East Arm of North Tea Lake, leaving the next day for the access point. We walked over to a nearby beach, which looked might be a good spot to have a campsite. There was none around, but it was fun exploring the beach, it was good to get out and stretch the legs. Just after 11:00 am we were back on the water with the expanse of Biggar lake ahead of us. There was a slight headwind, but generally the paddling was light and easy. Around 1:00 pm we came upon a group of fisherman that had been fishing the rapids, downstream from Hornbeam lake.
Leaving Birchcliffe Creek behind we emerged
onto Biggar Lake
A close-up of the falls at Hornbeam Lake
We ran into more people at the other end of the 240m portage into Mangotaysee Lake. Here we stopped for a break, and stared with envy at another party who were also taking a break with fresh meats and cheeses. I was getting hungry staring at their fresh food supply. I looked over at Mike, I could see the hunger in his eyes too! The smell of the fresh Kobasa started to drive me nuts, time to move on. By 2:00 pm we reached North Tea Lake proper, and within 30 minutes we landed at a beautiful Canadian Shield rock island campsite. It was large and very open. A fantastic summer campsite. I had tried to camp there in the past but it had been occupied. We had to go back quite a distance in the bush to find firewood, where we came upon a massive blowdown. I also found a nest of some mammals of a sort. It was a bush pile that been constructed. I've seen this on a smaller scale before, built by mice, and wondered what had built this?
A nice campsite for a nite on North Tea Lake(East Arm)
Campsites galore populate North Tea Lake
By 4:00 pm it had begun to get cooler and the sky clouded over and it became damp. We figured it was going to pour, so Mike & I went into action, Mike setting up a tarp over the fire-pit and bench system, and me surrounding the tent with as many pine needles as I could to help drain off waters should there be a downpour. Then both of us started chopping up our firewood, giving ourselves and those after us an ample supply. By 6:00 pm it certainly looked like it was going to storm, but by 8:15 pm, the sun peeked out again as it had begun to set. Suddenly it began to clear up. Figures, you don't prepare, you get soaked, you go through all the motions of preparedness and nothing happens. We both retired early, I was asleep by 9:00 pm.
