Waiting to Paddle

All the lakes and ponds are still trying to shake off winter’s grip and, the weather has not produced a quick meltdown.  I expect that my desires to get back on the water, before the end of April, will be declined by the natural circumstances.  But, that doesn’t mean that I can’t explore the possibilities of new places to paddle.

As usual, I had no set intentions, when I went out for my coffee today but, as often happens, when I hit the road northward, things started to churn around a bit in my mind.  First, I thought that I would make another attempt at getting into Mississagi Provincial Park, for a hike.  However, since this was a Sunday, I wasn’t all that surprised that there was, once again, a vehicle parked at the gate so, I continue past.

Just a bit past the entrance to Mississagi Provincial Park, where the river from Jim Christ Lake crosses the highway, into Flack Lake, I decided to stop and, take a look.  On one side of the highway, there is a spot that looks like it might be good for fishing.  On the other side, there is a trail, that leads into a picnic spot, and then, to Flack Lake.  I have some pictures and videos of both sides, which I will post next.

This is on the east side of the highway and, it looks to me like it might be a good place to try some fishing.  I had some more pictures of this area but, unfortunately, there was a smudge, right in the middle of the lens and, I didn’t notice it until later on.  You can see it in the middle of this shot too but, it was hidden a bit.  I did clean it off later.

This is the other side, west of the highway and, there is a trail going in, along this side of the river, all the way to Flack Lake.

The trail leads to this open area, along the river, where they created a picnic area.  As you can see, some of the snow has melted in here but, that does not represent most of the bush.

You can still see that smudge, in the middle of the lens but, I do notice it a bit farther on and, I use the finger of my gloved hand to clean it off.

The bridge that you can see in that video is a snowmobile/ATV bridge.  This river runs from Jim Christ Lake, into Flack Lake.

Now, I’m going to continue on the trail, right down to the shoreline of Flack Lake.

This is where the river empties into Flack Lake and, as you can see, I have now cleaned that smudge off the lens.  🙂

A nice clear view of Old Baldy, which lurks on the far west side of Flack Lake, 6kms away.

Another shot with Old Baldy in the distance.

Full zoom from the little Canon S100 is quite nice.

There is some blue sky showing up now and, it would continue to improve, for a while.

After this, I made my way back out to the truck and, continued northbound.

I was head for, what I refer to as, the top of Flack Hill.  Many times, when I’ve passed by that area, I’ve notice a small pull-off, on the side of the road there and, I wanted to investigate that.  I did have a look at that area, on the Bing Maps satellite shot and, I saw that there were two lake in that way so, I suspected that there might be a trail there.

As I suspected, there was a trail here but, this trail is not marked, in any way so, I’ll have to rely on just being able to see the gap through the bush.

I knew that I would need my snowshoes for this hike so, I put them on and, I was away.

Even though I had my snowshoes on, there were other difficulties on this trail.  There were a lot of small rivers, running underneath the snow cover and, I had to be careful where I chose to put my weight.

I made it past this one but, there were other places that were even trickier.

You can clearly see the trail, as I make my way through the bush but, it wasn’t going to be this obvious all the way in.

There were some big trees along this trail.

Here’s another one.  🙂

Once again, even though there were no makers on this trail, it was fairly easy to follow, for the most part.  It did get a bit more difficult as I got closer to the lake though.  I had to do a bit of zigzagging and, I’m pretty sure I got off the trail a few times.

In places like this, it was easy to see where the trail was.

Even though I got off the trail a number of times, I did make it to the lake.  The distance ended up being around 1.5kms so, it would be possible to get my kayak in here but, it wouldn’t exactly be a walk in the park.

You know, before I came up here, to live, I had a fair bit of sympathy for the native peoples but, since I’ve been here, that sympathy has dwindled away.  I’ve had a few positive interactions with the Indians but, for the most part, it’s all been negative.  Of course, I know that every nationality or culture has it’s darker side so, maybe this is what I’m seeing.  However, I live by my own personal life experiences and, I don’t intend to change that.

So, after this, I started the trek back out.  I didn’t really have any issues on the way out, it was fairly easy to follow the tracks that I’d made on the way in.

Anyway, I made it back out alive and, all was well.  It’s always nice to explore a new trail and, at the same time, find lakes where I might be able to get my kayak into.

I’ll just end this blog post with a video of a local waterfall.  Loud noises, coming right up!!