Day 1

La Ronge - Nut Point, Lac La Ronge

Distance – 15 km

Up by 7am, last of Jim’s yummy huge breakfasts. Busy morning, checked our e-mails. It was obvious that the satellite tracking device we had hoped to take with us was still not available despite many promises and ordering it 6 months ago so John cancelled the order [bah humbug]. We took our trip itinerary to the RCMP, posted our postcards, visited with Bob Polischuk [Doreen was working] and returned to have lunch with Jim and Anne. After lunch Jim and Anne took us and our gear to their dock on Lac La Ronge and we were on the water paddling by 2pm.

All our gear for the six week trip to Black Lake

All our gear for the six week trip to Black Lake

The afternoon was cool and overcast, excellent paddling weather, though we did have a slight headwind so we felt right back in our element. Due to the late hour, the fact that the cover still needed fitting and there were still a few packing kinks to iron out we were only heading for the same camp we stayed at on our last night in 2012 at Nut Point. It was slightly out of our way but we knew it was a good site. We covered the 15km in 3 hours.

Camp at Nut Point, Lac La Ronge

Camp at Nut Point, Lac La Ronge

We set up the tent and got the fire going in record time, some things have become second nature. We had our first night out of town traditional feed of hot dogs. Whilst we were eating a beaver we had seen earlier, swam across the small bay in front of us. About 50 metres from where we were sitting he climbed out of the water and started eating some small shrubby trees. I have never had such a close view of a beaver, he remained on the edge of the water throughout our meal, probably about 20 minutes, and ignored us even when we moved about, – fantastic.

The first day of our two year adventure from La Ronge to Baker Lake has begun. WOW!!!