Day 3: Brennan - Granite - Wabakimi Lake

32 km, 7 portages, 1 line

The old bladder was calling at 4AM, stepping out of the tent I was greeted by a fabulous northern lights show!  A few hours later we were up for the day and on the water by 9:00.

Paddled 3 km to Brennan Falls (upper falls), portage (P14) was clearly marked and well used; took us around the entire segment to the bottom of the falls.  One more kilometre of paddling and we were at the second (lower) falls area, with a portage (P15) right.  2km later we rode through an area of fast water and were in Granite Lake.

From here we headed north out of Granite towards Granite falls and the remainder of the Allenwater River. 

Portaged (P16 – map showed two portages, cannot recall if there was one or two) around Granite falls on the right; 4 km later around Black Beaver Rapids on a good marked portage (P17 river right).  2.5km later at Little Sturgeon Rapids, we completed 2 portages (P 18 and P19 RR) that were around fast water; we then lined the boat for a bit, scouted the river for rocks and decided to run the rest (we should have just run this entire swift, next time!).

At Sturgeon Rapids portaged (P20) river right, easy marked portage.  Saw recent wolf evidence on the portage, was looking forward to hearing wolf howls that night (never happened!).  A few kilometres later and we were on Wabakimi Lake.

 

Lots of float plane and outfitter activity on Wabakimi.  Saw a large moose on the shore as a float plane was flying overhead; moose wasn’t even phased by it (we were).  As we got out of the south bay onto the Lake proper, sky started to close in and cloud over.  We just barely made it to a campsite and set up before the rain came.