Cold snowy days are great times for reminiscing about summer days gone by. Our 2019 four day canoe trip to celebrate the 4th of July seems so long ago. It is funny how in hindsight the first things I remember are the warm sunny swim days, little fish jumping to eat mosquitoes, and the excitement of watching a porcupine visiting our campsite and climb trees. It is only after looking through the old videos and photographs that I recall the swarming mosquitoes, or the storm that came out of nowhere and turned out campsite into mud puddles.
We arrived at the Sylvania Wilderness and double portaged our gear and canoe to Whitefish lake on a 292 rod portage (0.9 miles). Once you get the portage behind you, the portage is actually becomes the nice thing about Whitefish Lake. It makes the visit feel more like a visit to a quiet wilderness as there are no roads and parking lots next to the lake. Before long, the afternoon grew sticky hot, and the mosquitoes circled our heads. It felt good to get on the water, out into the wind and away from the bugs.
Trip Video
Perch Campsite
The beach at Perch Campsite
We paddled across the lake to Perch campsite, and were disappointed to find squatters on our site. Sylvania Wilderness camping is by permit, and the squatters said that yes, they knew they required a permit and that they did not have permits, but they wanted to come over and take it anyhow hoping no one would show up. I suppose we were too close for comfort, so the non-permitted campers decided to move about 50 yards off the campsite and stayed nearby. After our 1 night on Perch 1 Campsite with squatters, we moved down the lake to our next campsite, Pike 2, as another party had Perch permitted for the rest of the weekend.
Yum!
Storm on day 1
We thought Perch 1 was buggy until we experienced Pike 2. Super buggy. We set up camp and swatted mosquitoes. My husband and daughter put up their hammocks with bug nets on them and relaxed. After lunch I heard a noise like big feet scratching through dry leaves on the forest floor. I went to investigate and startled a porcupine on our campsite. He slowly waddled over to a tree, and began a slow climb up into the leaves. The afternoon heated up, and we had a nice swim to get away from the mosquitoes and cool down. As we entered the water, large biting flies found us instantly appealing.
Whitefish Lake
Porcupine
Dragon Fly
Loons
Quills up!
That night we heard scratching, plodding footsteps just outside the tent. My husband scared the porcupine off, having heard porcupines like to ruin canoe paddles. Our wooden canoe paddles remained safe overnight. The overcast morning felt muggy and buggy.
I sat down near the lake waiting for the sun to dry up the fog, when our resident porcupine stepped out of the trees quite near me, quills raised. It would be another day of watching him climb trees to watch us from his leafy canopy above camp.
In the hot, buggy afternoon we enjoyed another swim, and my husband and daughter hit the hammock while I collected wood, cooked and did dishes. Although we didn't do much on day 3, the time for sunset came quickly.
Portage
On day 4, we woke to a beautiful day and the bugs had died down a little bit. We had a nice breakfast before paddling out. We ended our trip sweating and swatting mosquitoes on the portage out. After driving a couple hours away from the mosquitoes and flies in the air conditioned car, we stopped for a meal at a delicious Mexican restaurant. These conveniences felt down right luxurious. Although the comforts of modern life were really quite nice, we had already begun to miss our time in the outdoors.
Gator Paddler, Ams, and Mama
That's all for now, let's get outdoors and keep our wild places wild!
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