Day 9: Whitewater Lake – McKinley

21 km, 5 portages, 0 line

Route:

Whitewater Lake

P41 – note location!

P42 (west side) – into McKinley

McKinley Lake

P43 (west side) at pinch

P44 (west side) at pinch

P45 (across middle of island)

Woke early to cross Whitewater Lake before the winds picked up.  Stopped at the Wendell Beckwith cabin to look around (http://www.thunderbaymuseum.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/Wendell-Beckwith-fonds.pdf) – amazing, a must see location!! 

Portaged (P41) into McKinley Lake area.  This portage is located a good 1.5km from the river mouth, through some mud flats in the SW corner of the bay.  The portage was burnt and very difficult to travel.  Thankfully someone had blazed the trail – would never have found our way through the portage without the blazes!

A few more portaged and we started to look for a camp site.  There was a crappy site at the end of the last portage (P45), however we kept going and found a really nice cozy site on the small island noted (map).