Tuesday, March 31, 2009

Charlie's 2008 Odyssey XIV


Charlie's Final Report:
 
Hi Jim. Now for the rest of the story.
 
On Monday April 21 at 11:00AM Doug McDougall and I started out from Bruin Lake paddling thru Watson, Patterson and Woodburn Lakes. We then started up the Portage Creek. It was marshy very much the same as the Portage or Hell Creek outlet. It was clear sailing except for a few log jams and low bridges to Unadilla.
 
After ice cream and a short break at the Unadilla store we continued upstream. The creek was full with a good current to paddle up and of course the log jams and low bridges and a couple of shallow fast places and an old dam in Williamsville made things interesting. We paddled south on Williamsville Lake and into Ellsworth Lake crossing under Bowdish Road. Then paddling out the northwest corner of Ellsworth Lake we paddled up the creek to some small culverts where we portaged up and over. We continued up the creek to Bowdish Road and because it was getting dark we decided to start our portage on wheels there. 
 
My Note: In 1990 Verlen arrived at this spot and continued up the creek through McIntyre Lake. Then he came back down and informed me that a little beyond the lake on the left bank was what looked to him like a portage head. Who else in the whole world was more qualified than Verlen to identify a portage? His portage on wheels was on top of my 1986 Chevrolet Caprice Brougham. I took him over to Moeckle Road where he put back in and paddled down the Portage River to the Grand, pulling out at the Maple Grove Road DNR site.

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