Upgraded the fire pit for wind protection
Looking down over Brigham Chute on the Barron River
Barron River to Opalescent Lake
Great view down Opalescent Lake
I decided to kill some time by going back to the portage and clearing a few fallen trees that were blocking the path. They weren’t massive or too obstructive, but nonetheless, I didn’t mind clearing them as it was great firewood for me. I spent about 1.5 hours processing fallen trees. I wanted to have a nice fire as I planned to get a little reading done tonight. As the sun was setting, the rays of light were striking the trees all the way down the narrowing lake. “What a pretty lake,” I thought. It was around 8 p.m. when I had my dinner of beef stew and bannock. I am really glad I learned to make bannock – I love that stuff. I noticed another fire down the lake and when I looked a little closer I could see a yellow tent. It was kind of nice to know someone else was enjoying this beautiful lake. After dinner, I threw a few big logs on the fire and read about 50 pages from Joe Lavally and the Paleface. I was intrigued from page 1. What a great read. I added logs throughout the night while reading with a mug of green tea. I eventually went to bed, not too sure what time but I’d say somewhere around midnight.
Brigham Chute on the Barron River
Not much privacy on this site if someone is camping across the small bay
Swift Pack Canoe 13.6 on Opalescent Lake
Again I was not in a rush, but the winds were coming down the canyon with a lot of force – I was really tired by the time I got to the first portage. It was that 440 m around Brigham Chute, followed by a 100 m portage into Brigham Lake. The 440 m portage was a little rough, just as I thought it would be. Easy going, hard coming back. Steep and rocky – like everywhere else in this area. I passed it, and the 100 m portage into Brigham Lake. Brigham is a small lake with three campsites, and I wouldn’t mind staying there one day. I crossed Brigham to the left and took the 770 m portage to Opalescent Lake. There is supposed to be a site at the end of the portage on the Opalescent side, but it was removed and instead one was added at the Brigham end. There was a small trail off of the portage that leads to a smaller peninsula and a campsite – I was happy because I didn’t have to load my canoe again, but worried because there was a lot of standing water behind the site and the bugs may wreak havoc on me. I chose this site anyway and was all set up by 5:30 p.m. Not bad for a portage-connected campsite. I made an afternoon campfire to keep me company, but the wind was eating up my firewood too quickly. So I made a wind block out of three large flat stones.
Tarn 3 on a sunny Opalescent Lake
Opalescent Lake campsite
More logs cut and ready to go!
TOURduPARK
Day 3: Barron River to Opalescent Lake
Awake at 10:30 a.m. – pretty late by my standards at home; very late by my standards in The Park. I didn’t hustle much this morning. I started a fire and made a quick breakfast of bacon on an English muffin. I was getting a little restless by noon. Although it was a nice day and I had a cool site, I had the itch to move. I justified it to myself that because of the 22 km day I would face tomorrow, perhaps I would complete 7 km today to make it a bit easier. This would be the first time I’ve ever gone off permit. It would also be a key decision in the events tomorrow. I picked Opalescent Lake because it has a lot of campsites (and with it being the middle of the week in mid-May, I highly doubted my occupying a site there would leave another canoe tripper high and dry). I packed my things and was on the water by 3:00 p.m.