Odd, funny, scary or beautiful things seen on a portage

[Glenn MacGrady]

Probably the oddest has been myself carrying a 22' long Hawaiian outrigger canoe on my shoulder in the Boundary Waters with the iakos and ama dangling down. It only weighs about 32 lbs and I use a small Thermarest pad on my shoulder. I don't have a picture of myself doing it, but here is my custom made Huki V1-B, which I'm now thinking of selling.



I also once saw a couple of guys using something that looked like a collapsible baby stroller wheeling two cases of beer.

 

[Odyssey]

The most beautiful things I've seen on portages has been the natural beauty. The flora never ceases to amaze me some days. From moss carpeted boulders to old growth pines, and every variety of fern. Many more reasons to take my time and enjoy.
The funniest thing I ever saw, and in a charming way, was while my wife and I were pausing for a snack break. We heard the unmistakable booming thunder of aluminum on rock accompanied by happy voices. Two young teen girls lumbered by on the trail, one under an enormous pack load, the other under a large Grumman canoe, both obviously the group leaders and in the middle of amiable conversation. They were eventually followed by two young girls each weighed down by packs, paddles, and pfds, one of whom had a leg cast from foot to knee walking like Long John Silver, and neither of them pausing for breath as they chattered. It was a goat track trail so I know everyone suffered. I was impressed with how they were enjoying themselves and just getting on with it.

 

[ppine]

In the BWCA, I was about 60 miles from Moose Lake on the Horse River. We were doing a longer portage one morning. I was walking along with a 17 foot rental Grumman and my dog Snuffy following me. We came around a bend in the trail, and were face to face with a black bear at around 25 yards. He took one look at the canoe on my shoulders and could not leave fast enough. My dog never growled and I never put the canoe down.

On the same trip we ran into another party deep in the bush on a portage trail. I was carrying packs with my dog. A voageur looking fellow coming the other way stopped to chat. He was asking about my dog. By this time we are speaking English with a French accent which I studied in school for years. "Where did you get that dog?" he asked. "I ween herr in a pok-er game." I replied. "Did you win or lose?" was his snappy comeback.

 

[Patrick Corry]

Everyone who sees this picture laughs, so I guess it's funny, and meets one of the criteria for this thread:



and... for scale:


Common Stinkhorn (Phallus impudicus) Phallus_impudicus

 

[jdeerfoot]

Portaging a canoe with the bow down enough that I couldn’t see very far in front of me and I walk up on a pair of deer legs standing in the path. I waited and the deer waited. So I went slowly to the right and around the deer which did not move. I guess it saw no threat in a red canoe with legs.

 

[ppine]

Cool. One of the criteria would be a criterion.

 

[Bandanna Dan]

Last summer, at a portage landing in the BWCA we found a 9mm handgun with a full clip laying in the mud. While we were discussing what to do with it the owner showed up looking for it.

 

[Robin]

I was traveling up a stream that fed a series of small ponds in Quebec, as the stream got narrower I began to portage from one pond to another. At one take out, I noticed hundreds of fish attempting to access the stream. As I approached the next take out I noticed a few ravens in some tall pines. As I landed the canoe two bald eagles flew out from the portage opening right over my head. I walked up the trail which followed the stream coming down from the next pond and I found many dead fish (suckers) along the trail, mostly half eaten. I also found a few bear skat piles among the fish. Everything was super fresh, no flies yet. I assume the suckers were spawning in the stream and the bear(s) had a feast. I made the portage in two carries, and not having any bear spray or bangers I carried a paddle back and forth for my own peace of mind. I never did see any bears there.

 

[ppine]

I had a friend from Michigan that got a degree in forestry in 1938. He went on a two week canoe trip in what is now the BWCA during college. His outfiiter was Sig Olsen. He told the story of finding an old cookie tin cache on a portage across a small island. Inside were fish hooks, tobacco, little strips of red cloth, some trade beads, flint and steel, char cloth, and a small knife. He and his companions examined the contents and put it back. It is probably still there.

 

[wjmc]

This old pickup truck marked the north end of the portage between Yen and Fishtrap lakes (just south of Great Bear Lake) in the NWT.

Unexpected, as this is about 300 kilometers (180 miles) from the nearest road.



It was a relic from the original ice road to the Echo Bay mine on Great Bear Lake. Edith Iglauer's book - "Denison's Ice Road" - is a good read if you are interested in the history of this area.

-wjmc

 

[riverstrider]

Well, probably the oddest thing I have seen on a portage was this weird, rotating foam sculpture I passed on the Mud Pond Carry in Maine.



I also found a sandal hanging in a tree, but that is probably par for the course on this portage.



And finally there was that day on the portage from Umbagog to Lower Richardson Lake when my friend Jim tacoed his portage cart wheel.



Portages are great for stories, and I am sure I have more of them, but these are the ones that come to mind.

-rs

 

[Mzungu]

Thankfully I haven’t had anything scary yet on a portage, the oddest I have seen (and qualifies for funny as well) has been those big, round plastic Culligan like water jugs and air travel type suitcases. Seen on different trips, both BWCA.

 

[scoutergriz]

the two weirdest things I've seen were a complete porcelain toilet with seat and tank lid, and a telephone PBX board in the bush on a campsite at the end of a portage in the Kawarthas...
Some research turned up a logging camp there in the 70's, it must have been huge to require a private phone system...

 

[Seeker]

Most beautiful I've seen is probably the entire portage between Turtle Pond and Clamshell Pond in the St Regis Canoe Wilderness... from the initial entry into a moss-filled evergreen forest at Turtle, to the sudden transition to hardwoods to the beaver meadow to the hillside paths and glacially dropped rocks on the hardest/toughest portion over the high part, to the gorgeous trek down into Clamshell with it's welcoming sandy beach and clump of purple pickeralweed right there, as well as the best place to sit for lunch to the right as you get there... it's just a gorgeous portage. I hate it and love it all at once.




Scariest thing I've ever had happen is a run in with a very angry and unleashed dog whose owners had the audacity to tell me "it's ok... he's just scared"... yeah, well so am I... and I'm carrying 75 lbs of wood/canvas that I would happily drop right on dear scared Fido should he venture a step closer. Seriously, what are folks thinking?

Oddest? A couple times I've found stuff at portages, like shoes, bags, sunglasses, knives, that sort of thing.

I did watch a pair of loons kill about a half dozen merganser babies right in front of me while eating lunch at the Low's Upper Dam portage, on Hitchen's Pond. This one washed ashore.


Another time, at the portage between Fish Pond and Little Fish, I watched some waterfowl ride this stream down, quacking and enjoying every minute of it, fly up to the other end, and do it again. Pretty funny.


And finally, this is something that's always puzzled me... at the "end of the line", as far back into the St Regis as you can go, is Lydia Pond... and there, at the camp site, someone decided that it was worth schlepping a few dozen bricks and some cement in to make a fireplace. Ok, probably it was brought in by snowmobile in the winter, but still... makes me wonder.

 

[Caledonia]

In a mud flat at the end of a portage along a spur loop of the Kawishiwi river in BWCA.

 

[Jmharrick]

I did watch a pair of loons kill about a half dozen merganser babies right in front of me

I saw the same thing happen during a storm on Middle Saranac Lake. Momma duck and her ducklings were racing across the lake through wind and swells while a Loon was in close pursuit. I watched the Loon dive under the water, explode up onto the baby ducks, and drown them one after another. I believe there were 7 ducklings to start and only 1 remaining when they found shelter on the other side of the lake.

 

[ppine]

The Chilkoot Trail from Dyea, Alaska to Lake Bennett, BC is technically a 35 mile portage over the Coast Range. It was the only land obstacle between steamer ships from the West Coast and running the Yukon River to the Klondike gold fields. Along the way I found steam donkey engines for a tram, steel boat frames, old trapper cabins and the artifacts of the village of Bennett Lake where the 98ers built their boats for the trip down the Yukon. It is like a big open air museum.

 

[Keeled Over]

Every one of these stories is better than mine -

Many years ago I was steelhead fishing on the Pere Marquette river in Michigan's Lower Peninsula with my buddy Chaz. Getting towards 11 am which also happened to coincide with a need for a cold beer, a cigarette, and a trip to the head. There was a hole we had fished previously approaching so we beached the canoe about 75' from the hole.

As we stealthily approached the hole we could see something waving in the logs below, but it wasn't a fish. It was a children's blanket caught on a couple of branches and just slowly waving in the current. Not cool, but we had to answer the question we were both fearing. A couple of branches did not provide enough length to reach down and see what, if anything, was under the blanket. Since Chaz is 6'4" with a 36" inseam, and I am not, he got to go. Chaz waded in and it took some doing but he was able to snag the blanket and great news - no child inside. Whew!

While not canoeing, but scuba diving in Lake Michigan I came across a fully nude GI Joe doll - the full size - standing on the bottom in 27' of water with his arms sticking straight up. Wasn't by a dock or anything so someone dropped him overboard. I am assuming the child was changing outfits because in 1969 we put the arms straight up to accomplish a quick outfit change so the girls wouldn't see. Isn't it funny one could be embarrassed to exhibit a naked plastic puppet to a 4th grade girl, but fast forward a few years and we were all trying to take off our clothes in front of as many girls as possible. Ahh, 6th grade.

I also found a Sansui receiver in about 30' of water in March while diving in Lake Superior, but I can pretty much figure that one out. Like GI Joe, I left it there.

 

[Paddlinhal]

A couple of years ago, we poled up the East Machias River in the middle of a smelt run. Lots of eagles perched in the trees and the water was boiling with fish. We portaged around the dam into Crawford lake and had lunch at the top, next to the fish ladder that had a device counting the fish. It was pretty cool. Then my partner noticed the fish were chasing each other around above the dam. One got too close to the edge and went over, and the others followed, but last moment tried to turn back. We watch hundreds and hundreds of fish go back down over the dam. I bet Fish and Wildlife got a record count that year!

 

[MrPoling]

Old mill on the portage around a dam on the Haw River. I think it's old odd and beautiful. My daughter thought it was a little scary.

There are bottles in the windows. My hunch is whoever prepared the portage wanted to make sure you couldn't climb through the windows.