The Black Von Scrolls

Day 2

We meet down by the stoves where coffee and bagels were served at 7:30; “My boyfriend said, ‘You can’t give them bagels! They’re from New York!’” Emelie obviously ignored her boyfriend and plopped them down in front of us. One of the wonders of camping: everything tastes amazing, even fake bagels. We had a break in the weather during breakfast, but it started up again as we decamped, which is never that fun when all is wet.

It was my turn in the kayak. This I liked. Somehow the kayak is intuitive. We maneuvered through the lakes and I was having a grand time until my arms got extremely tired. Felix and I switched positions, and I resumed my post at the front of the canoe.

Emelie suggested we pull out the fishing rods. I threw my line into the water and watched it drag. My book selection on our holiday was The Sun Also Rises, which fed me excellent descriptions of Spanish fishing expeditions. I was giddy with my fishing pole. I would throw my line, wait a second and start reeling it in, over and over. Was completely content with this practice until my line got caught in a rock. I pulled and pulled, worried I was about to snap the line. Emelie took it from me. She yanked then looked back at me and smiled, “Here. I think you caught something. It’s big!” and gave me back the pole. WHAT!? I caught a fish? I rapidly pulled in my line, our canoe going with the current of the river and the fish getting dragged along. “What do you want to do with it?” she asked. I gave her a look. Duh. “Eat it!” I exclaimed. Emelie paddled over to the bank, Felix was far ahead in the distance. “Emelie! What do we do? You have to kill it!” (I can say this as it’s my first ever fish). She was squirming and really didn’t like this part of the process. She backed this up by saying, “I hate this part.” “Just do it, get it over with and make it quick.” She complied. And it was quick. She extracted her Leatherman and gutted the fish, showing me every part. I didn’t flinch, I was on form and learning. However, I have yet to do this myself, which might be a different story entirely. I pulled out a Ziplock bag and we threw our dinner inside. My first Grayling. Hooray.

We caught up with Felix who was waiting for us upstream. At 2:00 we arrived at the falls, earlier than Emelie expected. She was hoping for camp spots - but there were none. We pulled over to investigate the area. There was a perfect lunch area, so we ate sardines, cheese, crackers, dried fruit and chocolate perched on a rock above the waterfalls. Magic.

There was a half a mile portage which we examined. It met a small lagoon that would take us to a surprise second portage. “Oh god.” I thought. Not one, but two.

PORTAGE

Inventory: 1 canoe, 1 kayak, 3 large dry bags, 1 giant kitchen dry bag, 3 small dry bags, 2 fishing poles, 4 paddles, 1 shotgun (I know, when did that show up?), 1 camera box and 3 water bottles.

Now, I’m a master at packing stuff up - and our dry bags were OK, even with tent, sleeping bags, etc. So we slung those on our backs and I was the keeper of the gun and camera box plus one paddle. Let me say for the record, carrying a gun around really does give oneself a false sense of security. No longer was I concerned about bears, I toted a shotgun. Not that I could have unpacked the shotgun and actually used it, never laying my hands on one before.

“Hi bear. I realized I just surprised you and you’re pissed. But could you just wait a second while I unwrap this gun, see if it’s loaded and attempt to point it at you?”

All these thoughts were bouncing around in my head, which was good I suppose - as it took my mind off the various obstacles of rocks and slippery, swampy mud on a downhill trail.

Towards the end, there were halved logs laid out over streams which were a pleasure to trek along to the edge of the lagoon. Emelie had already balanced the canoe on her head all the way there (it was giant and quite heavy), and it was time for us to return for the second load. We walk back. Felix takes the front end of the canoe, and I tie up the end to my shoulders. I say to Felix, “Look. We can’t drop this, we need the kayak and can’t afford to fuck it up. We have to work as a team.” (sometimes I say these things out loud to remind myself not be a Type A dictator). We set off and carry the kayak down the trail. I am sweating. I don’t care if a bear eats me, this portage sucks. I worry that I’m not strong enough, but keep going.

The fishing poles set inside our kayak catch on a branch. In my dumbed-down state I yell to Felix: “Pole!” And with that he moves forward. The fishing pole is now bent into a complete U shape. “No! Pole!!” He again yanks the kayak forward. The fishing pole is about to snap. “FELIX! POLE!!!!” And with my eyes steer him to the fishing poles. He stops and backs up. “Oh,” he yells back, “I thought you said ‘Pull!’”. That pretty much sums up me and Felix.

We make it to the lagoon, kayak and fishing poles unharmed.

The small wander through the lagoon was something out of a fairy tale. Silent and serene. The rocks beside the water are extremely tall, I couldn’t even see where they stopped. But quickly it was all over… and the second portage had begun.

Sun. It was getting hot. Felix took off his jacket; PLOP. “What was that?” I glared at him. “Er, um. nothing.” busying himself. I walk closer. “Is that my camera?” “Um, yes. I just dropped it for a second. It’ll be FINE. Don’t WORRY.” “What do you mean it will be fine, it’s not fine, there’s mud on the lens.” This was my baby point-and-shoot which was sitting with us in the canoe for immediate snaps. We were wisely advised by our friend and cinematographer Chris Scarafile to set a point-and-shoot on our laps in the canoe and use our fancy Nikon once safely away from water. This made sense and we followed instruction. Unfortunately Felix wasn’t on dry land and the camera slid out of his jacket into wet mud. It immediately became toast. Me: very annoyed and in a bad mood.

Emelie starts off with the canoe. I begin to walk. “Oh no.” I thought. This isn’t good, it’s a treaturous downhill, wet, rocky portage. I land at the water’s edge, Emelie is exhausted. It’s hot and we take off our layers. Knowing Felix and I had to go back and get that kayak down the trail was a looming thought.

We go back to the kayak. “Felix. I’m really worried about this, my arms are already in agony.” “I know.” he says. “We’re going to make many stops. And don’t take anything I say in offense. We have to really communicate to get this thing down hill and not drop it.” We were both scared. Not often could we achieve something so great.

Fast forward to the end, we did it but my mind has blanked out the details.

Emelie is at the bottom looking for the 4th paddle. It was missing. Frustrated, she says to us, “OK you guys, I want everything packed up and ready to go. I have to find the other paddle and then we need to push off immediately.” She turns around and climbs back up the trail. I look out to the river for the first time and semi-freak: rapids. My arms are hanging off of my shoulders like wet spaghetti and we’re about to paddle through that?

We pack up the canoe and kayak, and waited. Emelie returns with the paddle (which was stuck somewhere in a bush). She’s pleased we’re good to go and hops in. “OK you guys, you need to put your game faces on. I thought we’d be able to rest here, but there’s no place to camp. We have to get out into those rapids. Felix: you need to stay directly behind me, DO NOT MOVE IN FRONT OF US. Michelle: you need to paddle hard on my call.” She taught me strokes like “pull left” and “hard forward”. I was wide awake. Everyone was.

In two seconds we’re in rapids. Emelie is shouting at me left, right and center. She’s constantly looking back to track Felix, who has turned himself completely around and going down the river backwards. We continue on for a small bit, dodging giant rocks and swerving in and out. Emelie finds a bank to stop and tries to catch Felix floating quickly backwards. She succeeds and we take a breath. More ahead and we go forward. I’m sort of loving this. It’s scary, but thrilling. I have always loved speed. However, my actual arm power is starting to fail, we’ve already had a long day and I’m beginning to get a bit delirious.

The river turns into a vigorous current and we speed in and out of the braiding which begins. I frequently would look behind us to make sure Felix was following, and he was. Emelie shouts, “This would be a good place to see bears!”

She eventually pulls over to look at a potential a camp spot. Emelie snoops around, comes back and says, “It can work. It’s not ideal but we could make it work.” I think to myself, forget that, after all we’ve been through today, I want four-star luxury. I pull a diva move and tell her “No. Let’s keep moving and find something amazing.”

We paddle for another hour, until the heavens part and the light touches down on to the most magical camp spot ever. We had been poodling along and it was like we all looked to the spot at the exact same time and gravitating that direction. We pull over and get out. A) No uphill anything B) some wood next to fire pit with view of Sugarloaf mountain C) flat, private tent areas D) several cut logs formally used for chairs. I was sold, we all were.

After pitching the tents we gathered more wood for the fire. Because the camp site was well-used, she told us to beware of “cat-holes.” “Cat-holes?” I said. “Yes. don’t step in one. They’re gross.” I looked at Felix, “That would be a great name for a band.” He agreed.

Emelie set up the kitchen tent and started to grill my Grayling in tin foil on the fire. This was gorgeous. We cook up peppers and onions and put them to one side. Then Emelie pours dehydrated refried beans into a pot and get those cooking. Meanwhile we throw tortillas on the fire. Oh yes, this is all so much fun. My fish tacos were great and I still remember them now. Obviously I would never put refried beans with fish tacos, but in the moment it was good.

We are completely exhausted and turn in about 10pm. Every bone hurts. But the good things is our camp spot was flat and comfortable. We all slept like angles as it rained.