Quetico: Things Over Which We Have No Control

The Maps Were Frequently Inaccurate and The Portages Were Hard To Find.

This is Marty enjoying the Allen Creek. On our map Allen Creek looked like an interesting shortcut out of remote Allen Lake back into the more populated areas of the park. It was a mere wiggly blue line of a route crisscrossed by several portages.

Marty's postcard commentary tells it best:

"Our great adventure started heading east out of Poobah Lake to Bernice Lake to Allen Lake and then to Allen Creek. We missed a portage (wrongly marked on two maps) and had to create our own, armed only with a folding saw, a cheese knife and the pointy end of the canoe as a battering ram. After 3 1/2 hours hard labor we emerged on the far side of the forest and wound up in a meandering channel that degenerated into a weed-choked beaver swamp that turned into a beaver dam that began to look dubious. It was 6pm and either we were going to spend the night in the canoe or we were going to retreat. What to do? We made a fast retreat only to find the missing portage on the right taking all of 15 minutes for us, the canoe and the gear. You could hear the gnashing of teeth echoing off the rocks. In desperation, as darkness was falling, we landed at the nearest rock outcrop that would hold a tent, got the gear organized, ate dinner in a haze of mosquitoes and hunkered down for the night.
Wish you were here- Marty & Edie"

Near the top of the Things Over Which We Have No Control List is "Weather."

Our first afternoon in Quetico was marked by increasing wind. A head wind. And raggedy waves. And a long distance. We were stopped by early afternoon on a lovely sand beach. The waves crashed on the shore all night. I amused myself by leaning against the overturned canoe doing needlework and recording the changing clouds and setting sun with my camera. It was pretty, the sun and sand were warm and it felt good to relax.

Marty took a nap and kept a sharp eye on the wind and waves.
The next morning was eerily quiet. The lake and skies were calm. It was time to travel and we did.
More weather comments:

Above and below depicts a brief low pressure system that passed overhead one gorgeous evening. It blew in dark clouds and (I assume) the high pressure system right behind it blew them right back out. It lasted all of 45 minutes. Bizarre.

And the wind...! Canada's high pressure systems jockeying for air space with the U.S.'s low pressure systems generated plenty of wind. Head wind. And some rain. This is our second full day on the trip waiting out a chilly gusty steely gray day tentbound.

I got tired of doing needlework
Marty eventually got tired of memorizing possible routes on the map and making elaborate trip notes.
So all we had left to do was... ham it up for the camera. And even that half-heartedly...
We were in paradise... and we were bored.