(Stage 3) Day 12 Tuesday June 7 – Sullivan Point to End of Whitesail Lake Beach Camp

May 25, 2016

• Wake Up Time: 3:00 am


• Departure Time: 4:38 am


• Distance Paddled: 40 kms (Total: 298)


• Total Paddling Time: 7 hrs 2 mins


• Weather Conditions: Excellent

The original plan for this day was to paddle to the ranger station, which sits between Eutsuk Lake and Whitesail Lake, where we intended to set up camp for the day. I think the distance to the ranger station from where we started that morning was about 25 kms. So we thought this would be a good day's paddle.

Also, worthy of note, is that we would encounter the second and final portage for the entire circuit at the ranger station. Yes we had one more portage to do but this one would be trivial compared to the first portage (i.e. about 600 meters only). This portage trail was actually set up to transport power boats from one lake to the other. A small railway track was built to accommodate a small rail car that can be hand cranked from one end to the other.

Ranger Station.

At the start of this short portage. We were able to use our carts easily on this trail.

This was at the other end of the portage trail. On the Whitesail Lake end.

What we were really concerned about was getting caught out on Whitesail Lake later in the day with potentially high winds and dangerous conditions along the shorelines (i.e. dead trees in the water).

Keep in mind that both the Vanderhoof and Burns Lake forestry offices warned us about Whitesail Lake the most. It can be a very dangerous lake even for power boats. So this was one of our biggest concerns for the entire trip. Again, the reason this lake is called “Whitesail” is because, when the winds pick up on this lake, you get waves that look like white sails.

Our original thinking was that we could paddle to the ranger station, do the portage to the other side at Whitesail and stop for the day. From there we could get a really early start on Whitesail while the conditions are generally really calm.

When we arrived at the portage point and ranger station we were greeted by the worst swarms of mosquitoes yet. They were so bad that we had to get repellent on quickly. We got right down to business to do this short portage by unloading gear from the boats, to lighten the load, and then getting the carts on.

When we looked at the hand cranked cart on the railway it seemed just way too slow. It would have taken us a lot longer to use the railway cart. There was a nice clear path for us to push our boats along side the railway bed. We got to the other side with all the gear and boats in one quick trip. It was just too easy. When we got to the other side and saw that the water conditions on Whitesail were perfect, we decided to just get back into the boats and paddle a little further up to try and get away from these mosquitoes.

These conditions on Whitesail were just too good to pass up. So in the boats we went. The lake would get even calmer as the day went on. Not what we expected.

This lake ended up being so calm all day long that we just wanted to keep paddling and paddling and paddling. However, we also realized after a while that there was really no place to land the boats. The shorelines where absolutely brutal with really dense under water forests and beaches completely littered with deadfall. Now we began to realize why this lake would have been so dangerous under severe windy conditions (which is supposed to be the norm for this lake). There was no place to pull out.

Another thing we started to notice when we tried coming in closer to shore was that there were, what looked like, giant deciduous trees about a meter below the surface of the water. It was absolutely surreal. It looked like a fantasy land below the water. At the same time it was a little spooky. Later that day and for several days after that Arnie kept saying the he didn't like this lake. It didn't feel right. As beautiful as it was there, he got a bad vibe from it. Let's call it "paddler's intuition".

We were so lucky that we got the calm conditions that day. We considered it to be a gift and decided to keep paddling to the very end of Whitesail Lake until we could find nicer beach areas. In making that decision, we were forced to take our breaks out on the water in our boats. Normally we would find a beach area to land at and stretch our legs. However, this was impossible on Whitesail. The net result is that we were in our boats for a very long time that day and we ended up paddling 40 kms in total. This was our longest paddling day. The following slide show covers all of the day's paddling.

For the longest time we were paddling at a very strong pace and the boats were just gliding along beautifully. However, on the last two or three kilometres we noticed a strange drag on the boats. All of a sudden our paddling seemed really laboured and the boats felt like they were crawling. For a while I thought I was paddling against a current and then I thought it was just me. But when we finally landed for the day, I told Arnie and Maria about a possible current and they said that they felt the same thing. I'm not really sure what it was but maybe it was just fatigue. Whatever it was it sure felt strange and, I think, we were all very relieved to be done with Whitesail Lake.

Our campsite for this evening was probably the most beautiful campsite of all. This was not a designated campsite. Just pure wilderness camping and on a nice beach. The view of the coastal mountains that were behind us when we paddled Whitesail were now in full view from the beach camp and were still spectacular. This was going to be our last night of camping on the Nechako Reservoir. Tomorrow we would complete the full circuit with only 27 kms left to get back to Little Andrews Bay.

At our final camp site for the entire trip. This was my favorite camp site of all. Not because it was the last but because it was actually really beautiful and no bugs for some reason.

This was the perfect ending to the perfect day.