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Angle to Key West: New Fort Williams (9/15-16)
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior – September 15-16, 2013 “So I think I took a wrong turn off Isle Royale,” I told Dan and Wim. “I know Thunder Bay looked a lot closer on the map.” They laughed. Wim had...
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Angle to Key West: Follow the Voyageurs (9/17)
Near Rosslyn, Kaministiquia River – September 17, 2013 Fog hung in the cool air over the Kaministiquia River, shrinking the world into a few hundred feet and transforming the banks into shadows. Wim...
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Angle to Key West: The Kaministiquia’s Broadside (9/18)
Past Kakabeka Falls, Kaministiquia River – September 18, 2013 The boat moved in fits behind me as I yanked it up a steep bank and crashed through a hundred yards of waist-high thorn bushes to a muddy...
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Angle to Key West: The Giant’s Staircase (9/19)
A mile above Split Falls, near Millar, Ontario, Kaministiquia River – September 19, 2013 The rainstorm swallowed the sun, turned the world dark, then opened up above me. I was halfway around the first...
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Angle to Key West: Get Up (9/20)
Matawin River Junction, Kaministiquia River – September 20, 2013 Get up, kid, get up. You can’t lie there forever. You can’t hide wrapped in your sleeping bag beneath your tarp. I know it’s...
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Angle to Key West: Rose and Ruth’s Trading Outpost (9/21)
Rose and Ruth’s Trading Outpost, Kaministiquia River -September 21, 2013 I talked to myself for an hour before I squeezed into my wetsuit and nudged the boat out on the water. I got in slow, pulling...
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Angle to Key West: Following Footsteps (9/22)
Great Dog Portage, Between Lower and Upper Dog Lake – September 22, 2013 The land rises behind Little Dog Lake like a wall. You stare at it for miles as you work up the river, the whole time knowing...
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Angle to Key West: The Great Dog Portage (9/23)
End of Great Dog Portage, Dog Lake – September 23, 2013 Rolling, dragging, pressing into the forest. Over fallen trees. Through branches. Under trunks. Cutting away. Flashing steel teeth. Moving...
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Angle to Key West: Into the Dog Maze (9/24)
Dog River, just before Rivière des Iles – September 24, 2013 By the third turn, the Dog River lost me in its maze of cattail islands and dead ends. The sun spun from one side of my face to the other....
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Angle to Key West: The Lake of Ice (9/25)
Coldwater Lake – September 25, 2013 You can’t see Jordain Creek as your round the last bend on the Dog River. You have to look for it. You have to know it’s there, hidden in head-high grasses. The...
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Angle to Key West: Two Thousand Feet (9/26)
Unnamed Lake on Prairie Portage, now named Wally’s Folly – September 26, 2013 Think, think where would the trail be. Where would you put it. Not there in the stream bed. It’s too messy. It doesn’t...
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Angle to Key West: Punch, Counterpunch (9/27)
Shore of Lac du Milieu – September 27, 2013 This is what I’ve traveled seven thousand miles for. This moment on a lake without a name. No trail. Locked in by trees. Me, a seventeen-foot boat, eighty...
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Angle to Key West: Wally Wars (9/28)
Shore of Lac du Milieu – September 28, 2013 One portage left, Wally. One last jump to make. “IT’S A TRAP!” Why are you spinning around in a swivel chair and screaming like Admiral Ackbar. Calm down....
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Angle to Key West: Toward the Savanne (9/29)
Swamp between Lac du Milieu and the Savanne River – September 29, 2013 I broke through the last line of tangled bog between me and the railroad track and stopped short. It wasn’t a railroad track, it...
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Angle to Key West: Missing the Monster (9/30)
Lac des Mille Lacs, near Savanne River – September 30, 2013 The concrete scrapped across my nose. I leaned back, pressing my body against the deck of the boat. My legs stretched along the bow. My...
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Angle to Key West: Easy Street (10/3)
French River near Highway 11 – October 3, 2013 I slid into the landing for the Brûlé Portage, beached the boat, and left to scout the trail. I wanted to look at it, to make sure it existed, to figure...
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Angle to Key West: New Fort Williams (9/15-16)
Thunder Bay, Lake Superior – September 15-16, 2013 “So I think I took a wrong turn off Isle Royale,” I told Dan and Wim. “I know Thunder Bay looked a lot closer on the map.” They laughed. Wim had...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Angle to Key West: Follow the Voyageurs (9/17)
Near Rosslyn, Kaministiquia River – September 17, 2013 Fog hung in the cool air over the Kaministiquia River, shrinking the world into a few hundred feet and transforming the banks into shadows. Wim...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Angle to Key West: The Kaministiquia’s Broadside (9/18)
Past Kakabeka Falls, Kaministiquia River – September 18, 2013 The boat moved in fits behind me as I yanked it up a steep bank and crashed through a hundred yards of waist-high thorn bushes to a muddy...
View ArticleClik here to view.
Angle to Key West: The Giant’s Staircase (9/19)
A mile above Split Falls, near Millar, Ontario, Kaministiquia River – September 19, 2013 The rainstorm swallowed the sun, turned the world dark, then opened up above me. I was halfway around the first...
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