Maps provided courtesy of Toporama which contains information licensed under the Open Government Licence – Canada. I have marked my route in blue and portages in red. 

We awoke to sunny skies. It was a nice change from the gloominess we had experienced the day before. The heavy rain over the night took the humidity out of the air and it was quite cool in the morning. Our respective tarps had kept us dry.

We took our time in the morning. Based on our knowledge of available campsites, we didn't have very far to go that day. We were aiming for the beach site just before the Dore Road. Past that, there weren't any nice sites for quite some distance, so we decided to save that for the following day. Besides, we were enjoying the morning in the sun, allowing us to dry some wet clothing. 

After a couple of coffees and bacon n' egg wraps, we broke camp and left shortly before 11 AM. I snapped my customary pic of the site as we departed.

We paddled the length of Bayly Lake heading east. At a point on the south shore, we noticed an interesting figure from quite a distance away. It was a cedar tree with a rather unique shape. 

Being the canoe geek that I am, these kinds of things in nature get me excited. Cedar trees are nature's expression of abstract art in my opinion. I feel that you need to look at life this way. After all, life without art would be sketchy. I mean, art is how a person should canvas the world. How else should a person frame their outlook? If you look at nature this way, it leaves an indelible impression on you. Try it, you may just have a brush with greatness...ok, I'll stop. I just can't help it with these dad puns. I always feel the need to draw attention to myself.

Oops.

Anyway, I thought the darn tree was pretty cool. On a related side note, apparently the field of medicine is starting to replace silicone breast implants with more natural materials like cedar. I'm not sure how they are doing it, but I think it would be really weird, wooden tit? 

At the eastern end of Bayly Lake, we arrived at a shallow set of rapids where the Wakami River continued flowing east. For the next few kilometers, the Wakami would drop in elevation over a series of rocky ledges, rapids and swifts.  We got out to scout the first drop and found that the water was high enough to run the rapids. Water levels were higher than normal, the heavy rain over the night contributing even more. This allowed us to avoid the 200-meter portage that I had marked on my map. In low water, these rapids could probably be lined or waded. In my excitement of running those rapids, I forgot to get a photo of the set. Sigh. 

The next set of rapids was more formidable. My notes said that there was a 45-meter portage on the left but the rapids could possibly be lined on the right. We got out on the right to scout and take a peek, but there was no way we could line on that side. The high water push was very strong and the shore was choked with trees. There wasn't any place for footing. From the top, this set looked like it could be run with a center-to-right line, but it was obvious that there was a ledge at the bottom. We paddled over to the left bank and walked to the bottom to scout. The ledge was manageable on river-right, but unfortunately, there was a sweeper at that exact spot. We were forced to portage. The trail was there, but faint, and it ended up being a bit of a bushwhack. Thankfully, it was short. Here are a couple of photos of the rapids from the bottom. 

Below the rapids, the river widened for a few hundred meters or so. There was a massive boulder placed in the middle of the river as if it were dropped there by a giant. If not a giant, then it was left from a retreating glacier. I have amazing powers of deduction. 

The river banks became rockier and quite scenic. We spotted the top of our next obstacle which my notes explained was a pretty falls. We got out on the left to take the 70-meter portage. 

The portage was apparent, but there was a lot of deadfall that we had to negotiate. We did a bit of work to clear some of it. 

There was an old campsite at the top of the hill overlooking the rapids. It looked rarely used. 

Arriving at the end of the port, we got a better look at the "falls". We discovered it wasn't a falls at all, but rather a pushy CIII rapid that would be quite technical to run given the number of rocks in it, even in high water. Again, there was a nasty little sweeper on river-right at the bottom that was placed just in a way that was enough to hamper a possible run. The portage was, in all likelihood, necessary, after all. 

We spent some time fishing below these rapids. Dad got a decent-sized pike right off the bat. We sent it back as we were on the hunt for pickerel. In the end, I caught I good eater that we kept, but the tap ran dry after that.  We paddled downriver around a bend and cleaned it on some exposed river rocks above the next set of rapids. Dad made us some peanut butter and honey wraps while I cleaned the fish. We would save him for dinner. 

There was a 54-meter portage on the left marked on my map to get around that set of rapids. The run looked shallow and rocky and went around a bend, so I walked down to the rocks on the right to inspect. In the high water, there seemed to be enough clearance to paddle it. Indeed, we did so with only a bit of minor scraping. We were happy to only portage twice on that section of the river. 

Below that set, my info stated that there were two more swifts to follow. These swifts were full-on rapids in the high water, but straightforward and easily run. It was a fun little ride.

The river widened to a small lake below the swifts and then narrowed again to another CI rapid that wasn't marked on my map. Here is a shot of it from river-left. We were able to run it. 

The river basically became an extended lake below that rapid for the next four kilometers as we paddled southeast. There weren't any campsites that we could spot from the boat, but we weren't really looking hard. We still had our sights on the beach site near the road. We did discover a very old fire ring on the west point at the narrows before the river veered due east again, but there was a tremendous amount of deadfall all over that point. That site looked like it had not been used since the Nixon Administration.

By 4:30 PM we arrived at the large widening of the river before the road.  The wind had come up a bit and it was getting a little gusty. Good news! We were ready to camp and that meant bugs would be blown away. 

My map showed that a site might exist on the north shore, so we paddled over to the obvious spot to investigate. Again, we came upon an old fire ring that had not seen use in a number of years. 

The site was not very flat, but it was interesting because it was on a strip of land that had water on both sides -- it also accessed the large bay to the north. Behind the clearing, under a tree, we discovered parts of an old stove that had seen better days. 

Here is a shot of the river looking east from the front of that site. The beach site we were aiming for can be seen on the far shore.

We moved on and arrived at the beach site five minutes later. There wasn't a huge amount of beach exposure in the high water, but enough to be comfortable. We found a good clearing for Dad's tent and a great spot between two trees for me to hang my hammock. The wind was keeping most of the bugs at bay, so we didn't bother with the bug shelter. 

We got a good fire going, cooked our fish with some sidekicks, and enjoyed a fantastic evening with clear skies and a lovely sunset. All was good in the world. 

This was my last visual of the day from my hammock at about 10:30 PM when I closed my eyes for the night. Awesome...