~*~ “I’m not coming out of the woods unless I’m carrying an entire tree.” ~*~

Fish Lakes to Devon Lakes

I woke up around 7:30am and forced myself out of the tent. As I wandered over to the privy, I noticed peaks that I had managed to miss the evening before. How? I have no idea. I went back to camp to change out of my comfy fleece before going to get the food bags. On my way, MsKB and Monty were walking like zombies to get theirs as well. Alpha’s was already gone and he wasn’t in camp so I wandered down by the lake to find him already cooking away. Early bird!

We huddled around the table, munching on breakfast and sipping hot cocoa out of the fun little origami cups. Have I mentioned that I don’t like Pop Tarts and don’t know why I brought them? Yick. As soon as breakfast was over, we filtered some water, packed up our gear and set out for the second day, already warmed by the hot cocoa, sun and blue skies. Today we would be hiking to Upper Devon Lake. Or was it Lower Devon…

As soon as we left Fish Lakes, we took a side trail past the wardens cabin so that we could take the highline route through the valley and past Moose Lake. This would save us from losing a ton of elevation, just to have to climb it all over again. You weren’t about to hear any complaints from me in this regard. Today, Alpha God took the lead and all was right in the world. We had originally thought that Pipestone Pass would be a great place for lunch but we ended up having some substantial ground to cover, and not wanting to bonk halfway up the pass, we opted to have lunch before the pass.

Alpha scouted out a nice rocky sitting point on the top of the ridge. He and I tossed down our bags, and big surprise…pulled out the topos. Time for a map check ~ it was becoming customary to look at them every time we stopped. Once I had eaten, I was ready to check out the scenery. After locating the “Saturn”, I discovered a really cool area to scramble some rocks on the side of the ridge. While the others napped and relaxed, I had fun climbing on the boulders, negotiating my way around. MsKB appeared at the top of the ridge and noted that I should change my name to lilmountaingoat. We’ll see. The view of the valley reminded me of the winter scenes that people create. The spruce trees looked so small and insignificant against the landscape, though I know they were immense. It was like staring down at the world’s largest replica of the backcountry. We could make out the other trail that ran through the valley and were pleased with ourselves for avoiding it!

Once again, Alpha set out with me on his heels. The climb up to Pipestone was going to be a long, steady one. Although you can see the trail and it’s winding path, it amazes me how steep and tedious it can actually be. Much different than the straight up and downs we have in the East. As we left the grassy ridge, we found ourselves hiking on “the moon”, an area of rock that was barren and strange. I commented several times that I wish I knew more about geology and what causes these vast changes in terrain. After another steep incline, we reached a scree field. Now it seems, we were hiking on purple rocks…or Mars. Somehow Alpha and I managed to lose the actual trail and ended up traversing across an almost sandy embankment. We noted the tracks and wondered if they belonged to moose? Caribou? Deer? Elk? No sign of wildlife but there were tracks all over the place. Noticing the trail running below us, we cautiously made our way down the face of Mars. Immediately in front of us we saw the cairn, indicating that we had reached Pipestone Pass. And again…the views became even more spectacular.

Usually when I hike, I prefer to keep going for long spells and then stop for long breaks. I found myself more than willing to stop whenever and just take in my surroundings. I never tired of the scenery and kept my head going left, right and back to be sure to not miss a beat. MsKB soon came trekking across Mars so I snapped a photo ~ she looked so tiny against the incredibly steep purple scree and I realized how my perception was off. It didn’t seem that she was so far away, yet she was this little thing hiking her way to us. As always, we spent time on the pass, talking and laughing, and oh…looking at the topos. I think the most uttered phrase was “Kim, may I see the topos?” followed by “Allie, what time is it?” She was the only one smart enough to wear a watch.

From Pipestone Pass, we did not have much of a descent. MsKB took the lead and set a nice comfortable pace for all of us to follow. We sang our way to Clearwater Pass (#2 for the day). MsKB and I struggled with the words to Copacabana while AlphaGod kept it real with “Sunshine on My Shoulders”. Our eyes were peeled for the spur trail over Clearwater as our legs were being torn up by incredibly annoying shrubbery. Sheesh ~ don’t they do trail maintenance in the backcountry?

We managed to miss the spur trail…oh, we saw it, but we walked right on by it. My fault, to be honest. Nobody was worried since we knew we had to go over the pass and there was only one direction to do that. Being above treeline (almost), made it relatively easy. I finally decided to take a scouting mission straight up over a steep embankment to see what was there. It ended up being a wise move, as I saw the trail about 100 yards off at the top of the climb. The wind had picked up substantially and it was getting cold. I hollered down to the rest of the group to come on up. Again, we broke out the topos to see how much further we had to go. Maybe a mile, maybe less…and no climbing this time!

The headwind was less than pleasant as we traversed over Clearwater Pass. My hands and my legs were stinging from the cold and I was relieved to see Upper Devon Lake looming not far from us. Though as we passed over the ridge, about 9 people, without backpacks, emerged from a small lake to our right. They seemed to be yelling and walked toward us. Unsure of who they were and what was going on, we kept at it. I think they came out on the trail, but we never saw another tent or them again. Maybe they were “pod people”?

We quickly realized that being above treeline meant that bear bagging wasn’t going to be a challenge. We took note of a giant 13’ boulder as we searched for a nice flat, dry place to put up our tents. In between two small creeks ended up being the ideal location. We all set up our tents, almost losing mine in the wind, and pitched them as tight as possible.

Alpha and I went in search of firewood while MsKB, Anna and Monty filtered water for everybody. It was an easy way to disperse the duties ~ all of us helping in any way we could. The cold wind forced us into our fleece, wool caps and gloves. Storm clouds loomed in the distance and we rushed to get the fire going so we could have some warmth while we cooked dinner. It worked! Everyone but Anna had brought Enertia meals so we chatted about what goes best in each one. I had brought a summer sausage to chop up into mine and ended up sharing it with Alpha, who had spaghetti on this cold evening. Yummmm! I swear that backpacking food is the best food ever ~ nothing ever tastes as good as dinner on the trail. Alpha had brought along Enertia Blueberry Cheesecake and prepared it for us. I think it made two passes around the circle before it was gone. Yeah…it was alright.

After dinner, we washed up a bit and cleaned our dishes. Alpha, MsKB and I took pulls of Jack Daniels and Black Velvet to warm ourselves from the inside as well. When the drops of rain threatened, we decided to head to the tents. Alpha and I gathered the food bags and made our way back to the giant boulder to rig them up. I climbed to the top, securing the bags together with a biner while Alpha patiently adjusted the lines, readjusted, and readjusted some more. When all was said and done, we had a pretty efficient bear bagging accomplishment. We were still a bit nervous because there was a lot of digging around the area so we knew that there was definitely bear activity. We hoped that our system, along with the impending bad weather, would keep them away for the night.

MsKB retired to bed while the rest of us gathered in Monty’s tent to play cribbage and pitch. Alpha preceded the game by telling us whenever he and one of his friends play, if HE wins…they get crappy weather. Splendid. I had the greatest hand ever, sure to win the game…but Anna had other plans and she and Alpha ended up winning before I could count my hand. #*$&#( B# $#&$!!!! Just as well because the rain started to fall so we dispersed to our tents and called it a night.

Day 4 – “F’ing Canadian Shrubbery Sh*t!!!” (all of us) Devon Lakes to Siffleur River

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