KAWNIPI LAKE - Day Twenty Five

Having just portaged over the final cascade of the falls chain, we found ourselves on Kawnipi Lake -ready to swim, remove the layers of bug protection we had been sweating in all morning, and then carry on down the lake on such a gorgeous afternoon. All this was put momentarily on hold as Erik released his first cast on the lake to catch a pike which we simply had to fry up for lunch. As we sit here now smelling the fish in the pan, we rest on some of the world's oldest exposed rocks. The Precambrian rocks that make up this part of the Canadian Shield formed 3.2 billion years ago. As we finished off our shepherds pie last night, we sat on a large rocky expanse by Baldrock Falls and watched the sun set turn the skies pink, with purple clouds floating beyond the silhouetted white pine.

The falls chain begins just about 12km into Quetico from the Cache Bay ranger station and is a place of exquisite beauty. Seven large falls are connected in a series with small lakes in between. Each one is dangerous and people have died along all the falls. It was a region to tread with caution and follow the shoreline. It was also a stretch of spectacular views. Water frothing over spiked rocks, dropping through narrow chutes, slickly flowing over enormous ledges. While we hurried to get through the portages it was worth it on each one to pause and take the side trail down to the water's edge in the middle of the falls to sit for a moment and take them in. Better yet when such a view of the falls included a moose eating on the other river bank!

We moved on down Kawnipi in the late afternoon sun with sparkles of light dancing on the waves before us. While I am the culprit of many "what is that moving in the water??" to responses of, "that's a log/rock/weed Brynley," today I had quite the sighting. Just around the point we watched as a bear swam to shore with a cub on her back. Their heads were just above the water with their ears standing out as they skimmed along the surface until they reached the weeds and we saw them scramble into the woods. After listening to the crunching of branches, they appeared momentarily, baby meandering behind mama, through an opening in the trees. What a day!!!