Starting making the last of the fresh bacon. As I was making breakfast I saw something hopping in the forest quite close. It was a bit of an erratic pattern and seemed like a bit of a longer creature so I tried to stay still and whispered to Kels. I then saw it deposit something smaller and furry on a path to an empty campsite. I went to investigate and it was a dead mouse. I knew the creature would come back for it's kill so I hunkered down and waited. Sure enough it camp back and it was a weasel! It was more curious about me than taking back it's kill. It came pretty close too. I'm afraid it was so erratic in it's movement that trying to capture a picture was quite tough and the one below doesn't do it justice at all but it was very cute and we were quite thrilled to see our first glimpse of creatures with fur. It blends in really well with the rocks but it's slightly off the the left in the middle of the picture.
After this encounter we were pretty excited and ate breakfast and finished taking down camp. And thus began Kels's never ending water filtration...
Pushing off at about 9am the water was calm, the sun was out and we knew we only had one portage this day.
However getting to it was interesting. The riverway through the marsh was marked but it was shallow. Not shallow enough that we had to get out and pull but we were def pushing off the bottom a few times lol. At the pullout there was a group of 5 kayaks. They helped us out and we helped them It was 4 older ladies and one older man.
The portage itself was relatively easy compared to the first two. We stopped briefly at the put in and I used the outhouse at that campsite. Outhouses are not nice things but it you can use them while keeping the door open cause there isn't anyone around it's at least moderately bearable. Still no sign of the kayakers we pushed off. We picked up a hitchhiker during the last portage and I named her Betsy and she kept me company while we paddled.
We paddled a fair way and then stopped on a rocky beach about 1pm for some lunch. Just as we were packing up the kayakers pulled in for some lunch themselves. They told us there were heading for campsite 21A that night. We had originally planned for something in the 20's ourselves so we talked while paddling away and decided to push past 21A. The sun was out and the water particularly calm. We pushed and pushed and kept thinking we'd missed some campsite markers (basically 2x2's with orange plastic screwed to the top - thus hard to see from a distance) but it turns out there was just A LOT of km between some spots and Isaac Lake is HUGE. SO by the time campsite 20 came into view (an packed of course) we were close to being done. But onward we pushed! And when 22 came into view we gave 'er. When we hiked up to the campsite - lovely beach but oh was the hike up not fun - we found out there was only 2 tent pads and we got the last one. It was with the same guys we camped with (but didn't really see) the first night! When we went back down to the canoe there was another couple disembarking and we had to tell them this campsite was full. They looked about as done as we felt.
We set up camp, had a bath in VERY muddy bottomed water and had dinner. Unfortunately with the sun baring down on us all day both of us got too much of it and forgot the sunscreen so we were very crispy and looked like lobsters. The 2 guys that had also set up camp told us that night we had paddled 30kms. It felt like it! We were done. We retired to the tent pretty quick.
PS: The 2 guys were out like a light and warned us they were snorers. They weren't off the mark and as our tents were pretty close we heard exactly when they dropped off. The best part however is when the farting starting. We heard one let 'er rip and then a tent zipper being undone. Despite being tired ourselves (or maybe because of it) we started giggling. A bit later after I had dropped off, Kels said they let another one go that was quite loud and must have woken the other guy up cause he said he heard it and then his buddy go Duuuuuuuude.
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