Upper Nipissing River Loop

What I was most excited about was the high probability of encountering a lot of wildlife on this trip, and as I made my way through the shallow, swampy waters of the upper portions of the Tim River, I encountered my first moose of the trip in the first five minutes! I spotted some flapping ears above the water line on the distant shore as a rounded my first bend in the river. The cow sensed me coming, climbed ashore, and darted off into the woods. Was this a good omen for the trip?

I made my way down the winding Tim River to Tim Lake where the creek emerged to the right of an island. I paused to take a quick photo of the picturesque Tim Lake, and just as I did so, a loon emerged from the waters in front of me --another good omen. 

I made my way across the bay to the west shore of the large island that dominated the centre of Tim Lake to check out the campsite there. I like to do this if I can in an effort to scout out possible nice sites for future trips. From the water, it seemed fine but nothing special. 

Five minutes later, I was pulling up to the take-out at the portage into Chibiabos Lake on the north shore of Tim Lake. The trail seemed well-used and was an easy 345-meter carry despite a steep hill at the beginning. 

As I was bringing my canoe and food barrel to the put-in on the second load, my luck turned south. I stepped on a root as I was rounding a corner and rolled my left ankle badly. My leg buckled, and down I went with the canoe crashing upon me. That left ankle of mine has had countless sprains from playing sports over the years and its ligaments remain stretched and damaged; there isn't a lot of tension left in those ligaments and a constant worry that I have, especially on solo trips, is that I will roll my ankle and be incapable of walking. 

I lay there on the trail for a minute, fearing the worst. After gingerly returning to my feet, I was glad that I could put weight on it. I tightened my walking boots, retrieved some velcro straps from my bag, and wrapped them around the outside of the ankle of my boot for extra support. I picked up the canoe and heaved it on my shoulders again and finished the portage. I could feel a bit of a pang at every step, but it was manageable. 

At the put-in, I made a bargain with myself; I would continue up to Big Bob Lake that evening, try to elevate my ankle over the night, and if the swelling and pain were too great by morning, I would backtrack to the vehicle and end the trip. Perhaps a wiser person would have done that immediately, but I had come all that way and didn't want to abandon ship just quite yet. I would just have to be super vigilant on every step and make sure that I didn't roll that darn ankle again. 

I put in on Chibiabos (Spirit Rabbit) Lake and paddled past the campsite on its eastern shore. It, too, was fine but nothing special. 

Within a few minutes, I was pulling up to the swampy take-out to Indian Pipe Lake (time for a name change, perhaps?!?), where I gratefully unloaded onto a makeshift dock of planks to get past the nasty, mucky bits. The trail was short and unremarkable except for the fact that it crossed a well-maintained logging road that connected to the road at the access point. 

It was a pretty, little, round lake with some rocky outcrops, but with a shallow and swampy west end where I found another mucky take-out to the portage to West Koko Pond. 

This one was longer at 820 meters and had some undulating bits.  I tread very carefully through the wet spots and particularly where I had to rock hop across a creek. My ankle was getting sorer and I dearly did not want to go over on it again. Reaching the end of the portage was bittersweet; I was happy to have finished it, but a little demoralized to see the sign for the 790-meter portage into Big Bob Lake, just a one-minute paddle across the pond.

The daylight hours were ticking away, so I had to keep on keeping on. This carry was a little easier than the previous one and I happily put it behind me in short order. I was spurred on somewhat by the mosquito population which seemed to be growing by the minute. 

I put in on Big Bob and immediately began paddling to its west end. 

The campsite on its eastern shore was supposed to be a nice one, but it was adjacent to a swamp and seemed like it might be a mosquito party. The site that I was aiming for appeared to be on a point jutting out from the lake's north shore and had more potential for a breeze to blow away the nasty critters. 

Indeed, when I arrived there, it was a great site with water on three sides of it and a lovely rocky front porch facing southwest. The firepit had nice views and if there hadn't been a fire ban, I would have had a nice fire that evening;  the site wasn't even that buggy.