Sunday morning dawned clear and calm and beautiful - a carbon copy of the day before, and precisely according to forecast.
Today was the gravy day of the trip - a day not needed to achieve our basic loop up to Catfish and back. Arn proposed that we fill the day with an exploratory journey up the Petawawa River beyond Catfish, towards an even more remote area of the park around Burntroot Lake. Since we were planning to stay at our current Catfish Lake campsite for another night, this was a there-and-back sort of expedition: we'd simply monitor the time and turn around when we felt it appropriate.
Starting a Day of Exploration
We left camp at about 10:30 am, paddling across the still waters of Catfish. We headed south, past Shangri-La Roach Island, to the southern reaches of Catfish Lake. Choked with aquatic plant life, we had to stay within a winding laneway of open water or risk being slowed to a crawl pushing through plants. Eventually we navigated our way to the outflow of the Petawawa River into Catfish Lake, and the first of several portages.
With only day gear with us, the portages were less strenuous affairs. Additionally, I had closely examined my canoe and had discovered that its carrying yoke was off-center. This was likely the cause of my uncomfortable portages. I started experimenting with hanging some counterweights in strategic locations, and after a few tries I seemed to have dialed in a much more balanceable configuration. Certainly the canoe seemed much more comfortable on my shoulders.
Shallow Petawawa
Stretches of the Petawawa River were interspersed with short portages (none more than about 400 metres). The river sections were very shallow in places - not enough to ground us, but close. In one spot, we paddled up a small set of shallow riffles, avoiding one of the portages.
We ended up pushing upstream quite a long ways - farther than I had thought we would go. We made it all the way to the middle of Perley Lake, and not that far away from the large expanse of Burntroot Lake, before we decided to call for a lunch stop and turnaround point. We selected a beautiful campsite on a long peninsula that stuck out partway along Perley Lake.
Now travelling with the current, we made excellent time paddling back down the lazy waters of the Petawawa. The shallow waters and abundant plant life created some scenic river scenes, with many varied textures and colors clearly visible not far below the water's surface.
A very respectable 2.5 hours brought us all the way back to our Catfish Lake campsite. We had achieved a total of just over 20 kilometres today - very respectable for a "leisurely" expedition.
A Long Rest Day
Another warm afternoon demanded some more swim time, and soon the day's sweat was washed away by the waters of Catfish Lake. We decided to continue with the theme of high-speed water-related photography, with Arn and Dave taking center stage this time for a series of diving captures, both above and below the water. Interesting results, as you can see in the following pictures.
After another relaxing evening of food and fireside chatting, we hit the sack for the final night of our trip.
