TO HIRANDELLE ... (7 hours good full day) ... July 15/b

Paddle up lake (To east of Mt. Miskittenau & the 2 islands to its E and NE. 3-4 swifts run before:

R. Just after turn to the NW is made, a rapid is run. We shot left of center into an eddy to the left, then shot down to the portage just below.

P. 50 yd of left. Takes out of a small eddy at the lop of a pitch too big to run. Channel here is divided by a large rocky island. Room for only 2 canoes at once in the unloading and loading eddies. (First of the two slashes marked near the R on this channel. R appears just below where the west channel around Ile de SE enters on map)

Paddle 1/2 mile past channel coming in from west side of Ile de SE

P 75 yds on left. Unloading spot only big enough for 2 canoes. Takes out just above a pitch too big to run. (2nd slash marked, NE of R on map)

Paddle 2-3 miles (with one swift run as turn was made with a long narrow bay off to the S & SE.

R (Marked on 4-1’s) Ran the center at top (shallows to the left) and then hard left coming out to the far left of very large swells (3’drop described by Porter). Staying as far left as possible here.

Paddle 1 mile

R (Just as river makes a hard right just less than 1 mile SE of black cross (+) on 4-1s there are one or two small islands just before the rapid starts. Go to the left of these. Top shot easily (a horse race) one at a time down the right center of the river. Below most of the river goes left of a small island & over a drop too big to run. We shot a small swift on the right of the island into a large eddy (big enough for the whole section) on the left in this right channel. Then we lifted over a rock peninsula coming out from the left at the bottom of the island. Run out of bottom made as far right as possible avoiding large stacks.

R Small & easy. We shot the center of the right channel around a large island.

C.S. on right of stream from Lac Canotaicane (we ate lunch here). Pretty spot but in a fairly recent burn (Clay & Bill camped here).

R Ran right center of right channel. Easy.

Paddle lake stretch, passing the first deep narrow and second wide deep bay to the left, to the next, or third bay (actually a large island on the NW side of this “bay”). Follow this large island down to its base taking a right into a long narrow channel which cuts the island off from the mainland. Paddle up channel until you can see the lake at the far end. Then hang a left into a small stream.

P. on right 10 yds short of the limit of stream. Follow trail over burnt area. 400 yds long. Crosses several dried stream beds straight across. Puts into Lac de L’Hironedelle.

C.S. on left point about 2 miles from the portage, just out of the burn area & on a large gradual sloping rock. Tent sites back trail leading away from the water.

The wind switched to a north wind and then (now) is out of the SW again. Rained and drizzled almost all of today. Nice day of rapids. The last day for a while of big rapids of the Rupert. We shot “trouble spot #5” and most people took a couple inches of water ( I took on 2”), and Schmidt took a lot of water but didn’t swamp. It was over a 3’ drop and tricky maneuvering around rocks and stacks. Nice! Absolutely beautiful country we went through today. Small rounded mountains rising above the lake just before we left the Rupert. Beautiful! I could go on tripping like this forever. Even though it was really misty, foggy and rainy all day, it was all beautiful still. We were paddling up this small side channel to the portage into Lac de L’Hirondelle which is a lake on the Marten River system (which drains into the Rupert about 10 days and many miles from here). Anyway, I came around this corner real slow- it was a rock laden area, and there 40 yards in front of us was a cow moose feeding in some shallows. Finally after I whispered to him, my bowman saw her and stopped paddling. I slowly paddled to within about 20 yards of her as she slowly lumbered out of the shallows and up the bank, stopping several times to turn around and look’ at us. Finally as she stood on a small rise she bawled , turned and walked down the other side of the rise’ out of sight. Our first moose this year, thus we named her Alberta. It’s the closest I’ve ever been to one of these beautiful animals. It’s such an incredible experience in itself, just seeing one up close.

A couple of small rapids tomorrow & some lake paddling. We may catch up with Clay & Bill who were going to take a rest day tomorrow at Lac Monmort (actually they will probably go on instead, & we won’t see them).

This country is my home in my heart. I love it!