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The Portage From Hell:
Ah, the dreaded portage from Kemano to Tahtsa Lake! I figure there will
be roughly 125 portages during my expedition. The first one just happens
to be 51 kilometers, starting at sea level and peaking out at nearly 3300
at a mountain pass along the Coast Mountains. This is what will enable
me to put togther a route that will take me from the British Columbia
coast and up and over the mountains of BC.
After paddling into Kemano from Europa Hot-Springs, 37.5 km, I arrived
in a pouring rain, late in the afternoon, prompty changed into a dry base
layer and my Moonstone Gore-Tex pants and jacket, assembled the portage
cart, loaded on the canoe and my huge pile of gear, food and equipment
and began walking. I figured the 51 kilometers is along an old logging
road, I'll just pull the canoe along behine me on the cart, it can't be
that bad right? Wrong!
The first 14 km is along a good paved road with only a mild incline, should
not be a problem...I thought. After only about 6 km, what do I see just
off the road in the trees? Ahhh....2 Grizzlies! Well, I make a bunch of
noise and they look at me and tear off into the forest.....whew! Okay,
no worries...until 15 minutes later I see one of the bears again, about
200 meters back on the road, standing on its hind legs, watching mre....hmmm....not
good! Finally the bear heads back into the forest and I resume wlaking,
nervously looking back every 30 seconds or so now....paranoid about the
bears!
A few minutes later a white van comes along and stops, full of construction
workers working for Alcan, the aluminum company thast runs a huge operation
in Kittimat and draws power from Kemano and the Nechako Reservoir system.
We talk for a fe wminutes and they give me a beer for later, figuring
I'll have earned it. About 20 minutes later, they stop again on their
way back and they tell me they just saw 6 more bears. They then offer
to help me haul my gear up the last 3 or 4 kilometers to where I turn
off on the old logging road to Tahtsa Lake, the turnoff is also the site
of a recently abandoned logging camp....abandoned because of the problems
with the bears. Kemano is well known for its extremely high concentration
of Grizzlies as well as black bears.
At the old logging camp, the guys show me the old houses used for lodging
the workers when it was in operation...fully equiped kitchen clean room,
fresh sheets...and the power and hot water is still hooked up, I can't
believe it! Not exactly roughing it but right now, that does not bother
me at all!
After a hot shower and some supper I went to bed. 5 minutes later I heard
something scratching at the front door...it was a Griizzly! Yikes, glad
I'm inside tonight. Duwayne, one of the guys from the van, had also told
me that just a couple of years ago, someone had left the door open in
this very house overnight and a grizzly walked right into the kitchen.
One of the workers had to shoot it right there in the living room! Pretty
crazy. I quickly made sure all the doors were securely shut and then went
back to bed.
The next morning after breakfast and amkiing some quick repairs to the
portage cart, off I went. I was hoping to make it 21 kilometers up the
logging road today at least, according to Duwayne, that is where the snowline
starts. I figure all the bears are now well below the snowline by now
so that would be a safe place to camp tonight. The road started out pretty
good but soon became much rougher and steeper, making for hard work hauling
my overloaded canoe behind me. Rocks the size of basketballs, deep ruts
and then landslides. At the landslides, I'd have tp nload the canoe, carry
all the gear across then come back, take the canoe across and then fu=inally
the cart. Load the canoe back on, put the gear back in and away I'd go.
TThis happened several times while the "'road: continued to get steeper
and steeper.
After about 12 hours of working my way up the mountain I was pretty much
exhausted...and I'd only gone about 15 kilometers so far. Not good!Bad
you might even say...I did! I ended up setting up camp here, in the midst
of bear couintry with fresh bear sign all around me, even two huge piles
of grizzly droppings within site of the tent! I was not feeling too good
about this at this point. A feww minutes later Duwayne comes along on
a four wheeler, he'd mentioned last night he would ride up bafter work
to check on me, see if I'm making out okay.We talked it over and I ended
up agreeing that I'd be much better off up in the snowpack tonight. We
strapped my gearonto the racks on the quad, I sat on the back, jolding
the bow line of the canoe and Duwayne then slowly made his way up the
next 6 kilometers and into the snow where I quickly made camp by the light
of my headlamp, feeling much better than I had down below.. I'd planned
to do the entire trip self propelled but in this case, I think the idea
if "Safety First" had to be taken into consideration and I have
no regrets at all about that decision. Thanks for your help Duwayne!
The next day, after a quick breakfast, I broke camp and was off once
more, this time hauling the canoe along behind me on the snow. It was
so much easier than yesterday, hauling the cart up that "Road".
Things went greatt until I started hitting bare patches of road and had
to begin switching back and forth from the cart to hauling on the snow.
Loading the canoe on and off the cart over and over, pulling gearout of
the canoe, putting it back in....on and on it went. Progress was being
made though. Soon I was opn the steepest sections of the portage yet and
working like mad to haul things up behind me. A few minutes later however
I finally reached the top of the mountain pass, nearly 3300 feet above
my starting point down at sea level. "Awesome" I thought, all
downhill from here to Tahtsa Lake, can't be too bad now! Wrong again!
Next I was puulling the canoe along the orad, bordrered by a 200 foot
dropoff when I encountered another series of 3 landi haukedslides, all
covered in deep SLIPPERY snow! Steep snow ending with a cliff! Yikes!!
I could picture the back end of the canoe sliding out along the landslide
and heading right for the cliff...not a pleasant thought at all! I used
my spare paddle, a Grey Owl Hammerhead, to dig out a 2 foot wide trench,
a foot deep and I hauled the canoe, carefully, across the landslides this
way, on a very short leash. It seemed to work fine so I did the same thing
on the remaining landslides as well.
After this, another couple of hours and I was at Sanifer Lake where Dujwayne
had told me about an awesome cabin I could stay at. Wow, he was not kidding.
Beautiful log construction, upper loft for sleeping, fronyt veranda with
an epic view of the Coast Mountains and a fully stocked kitchen! Nice!Upon
unloadingthe canoe however, I noticed a nasty hole in the hull of the
canoe, must have happend one of the times the cart, canoe and all, tipped
over yesterday on the rocky "road". Damn! Well, it looks like
I'll be taking tomorrow off to sytay at the cabin and do some canoe repairs!
I spent the next day patching up the canoe, cathcing up on my jouranl,
reading outside in the sun....yeah, a pretty relaxing day all in all!!!
I was off bright and early the next morning to finish the last 5 kilometers
of the portage to Tahtsa Lake. It went well enough but I did have to switch
back and forth from hauling on the snow to using the cart several more
times. I finally arrived at Tahtsa Lake at 12:00 noon and was back on
the water 30 minutes later, the 51 kilometer monster portage now behind
me! There were times when it was so steep and rough that I'd be standing
with my back to the mountain, facing the canoe, holding on to the grab
loops with both hands, feet firmly planted and I'd pull HARD, hauling
the canoe up another 2 feet. Then I'd do it again. There were stretches
like this over and over.
Most importantly however is that I made it. One lost pair of gloves,
one broken canoe hull, one very tired paddler.....but it was finished!
1 portage down, roughly 124 to go. Luckily this was THE one I was worried
about though.
Stay tuned for the next report on paddling from Tahtsa Lake to Prince
George, coming soon to a computer near you!
Cheers...Joe O'Blenis
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