I am heading over to The Boundary Waters Canoe Area, but last moment V emails me:” Go to the Canadian side!” Giving me an incredible time in Anchorage, I better listen to him, and so I continue driving and heading over to Quetico Provincial Park in Canada.
Like every trip, it starts with the usual packing in the parking lot; a five day loop of kayaking, with the big difference this time, 9 portages. Many things have to stay with the Oto, food is reduced to the minimum and a backpack is added.
Different from the Boundary waters, Quetico has no marked campsites and no marked portages, allowing for the real wilderness experience. Portages are marked on my map, but to find an established campsite, I just have to paddle close to shore and scout for a fire pit or wood bench. After a whole afternoon paddling over Pickerel lake, I find a campsite on a small island and watch the sun set in the evening. There is nobody around and life is good.
The next day I continue and after a short paddle I come up to my first portage, 460 meters long. All my belongings disappear into my backpack and with some effort I mount the backpack on my shoulders and walk to the other side. Its kind of heavy…
I walk back to get my kayak and wrap the tip into 5 layers of duct-tape. The deal is not to drop and destroy the kayak, because I will be kind of stuck here in the middle of the wilderness for a while. So I have to stop walking before I get too tired, to be able to balance the kayak on its tip and then place it softly on the ground.
The first technique I develop is to carry the kayak on my shoulder, row skiff style. After 100 steps I have to drop the kayak down. It seems I carry the kayak more with my arms then with my shoulder. Hmmm, have to come up with something better. Of course, remember your sisters in Ghana, carry it on your head. And so for the second technique I bind my dreads on top of my head as a cushion and lift the kayak on top of my head. With every step I take I feel my spine shrinking and 150 steps and couple centimeters shorter I have to take a break. 
With 3 more breaks and a sore back I make it to the other side. I paddle a couple of miles before the second portage of the day is presenting itself. I don’t know how I do it, but the 730 meters are covered without breaking my kayak or my back. Its just not the way to do this. I have to come up with some better technique or at some point of this trip I might be stuck. The portage brings me to my own lake, nobody is around. Its me and nature. Jeh, it is 100% worth the struggle.
The route continues through a small river, which is streaming the way I travel. Should be easy, maybe I can even just float. That’s what I had in mind. Instead I drag my kayak over several beaver dams, up to 2 meter high, dump my Xtra Tufs a couple of times and fight off the reed blocking the channel. This trip starting to become a bit weary. 
I paddle through the Sturgeon narrows and find again a campsite on a small island. Would have been so nice to have a man around now. Instead I pitch the tent, filter the water, make a fire, cook a meal and hang the food myself. 
The evening is calm, beavers are encircling the island and flop their tail now and then. A bald eagle catches a fish right in front of me. An evening, every evening should be. 
To spread the pain, I plan to do 5 portages today. Putting me in between the two 700+ meter portages for the night. The first portage is 100 meters but it takes me a while. I really have to think this over, how to make this more efficient without that strong man around.
The next portage is 120 meters, with a pond in the middle. To tired to unpack my backpack, I put the pack in the cockpit and sit on top of my kayak to cross the pond. For sure not the best idea at all, with some scary unbalancing moments, I hardly make it dry to the other side. 
The next portage is undefined but seems long, very long. Instead of my hair, I place my lifejacket on top of my head. I feel tired and the trails are not the easiest one to walk across. The avoidable happens, I stumble and can just catch my kayak on top of my back. There I am standing, bend forwards with a kayak on my back in the middle of the wilderness. I don’t know how long I am standing there, but in the end I lift myself up to place the kayak back on my head. When I have it balanced on my shoulders, it actually feels not too bad. I can even walk kind of easier this way and for 300 steps I am fine. Then I slowly bend forward, balance the kayak on its tips, rest in this position and continue with lifting it back on my shoulders. This technique is definitely the best so far. I drag myself across another undefined portage and make up my mind for the last 740 meters of portage for the day. I cross a large lake and suddenly I am crying in the middle of the lake. How the heck am I going to carry my kayak over the next portage? Where is that man? I am tired, hungry and see not how I will able to do another portage today. Time to make camp and relax. Two 700+ meters portages in a row are worries for tomorrow.
The surrounding is so beautiful and relax that all sorrow of the day is forgotten quick. After my fourth swim of the day, I make camp and enjoy another evening alone. Well that man would still be nice to have around…With fresh energy and the knowledge it will be over soon, I perfect my technique and work hard to get my kayak over 740 + 710 + 270 meters of portage the next day. Then its over and only 1 big lake is between me and the Oto. For one more night I build camp, a fire, cook a dinner. I am way too beaten up to filter water and just drink it straight out of the lake, but I do put on a rain fly on the tent and hang the food. At least I don’t have to get out of bed this night.
In the middle of the night I wake up indeed from the rain and thunder and hear the waves crashing into the shore. After surviving all these portages with the kayak, its not the right time to loose the kayak now. And so I still jump out of the tent and drag the kayak higher on shore. The next morning I find the kayak 10 meters away from the water, might have over reacted a little bit too much in the dark.
The rain keeps coming, but with the wind in the back I make it quickly back to the Oto. Here and there it becomes a little bit scary with the waves capping white around me, but the water is warm and I kind of know now how to get back into my kayak. So no worries and I enjoy the last bit of this amazing trip. The statistics
Amount of days: 5
People I met: 1
Paddled: ±80 km
Walked with backpack: ±3500 m
Walked without backpack: ±3500 m
Walked with kayak: ±3500m
A very beautiful amazing trip again but next time you send me somewhere V, you better come with me. Or any other man…..please…
Dag,
Iris (Quetico, 19510 miles)
