Kopka Part 2 - radio interviews from the deep woods

• Posted on April 3, 2008 at 10:09 PM
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hot day on the portage

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Kopka River Misadventures - Part II

It was lunch time when we finally found our way around the moderate drop and a group decision was made to take it easy for awhile and drift with the tail wind, munching away on our daily supply of P&J and bannock. We made our way across yet another unnamed lake until the Kopka flushed northward, where an old logging road crossed the river.

The portage here, which was mandatory for the great amount of water rushing through the drop at the time, began on the left bank, and on the far side of the bridge. We took out on the other side, however. None of us wanted to get caught up in the strong current prior to the major drop.

This wasn’t an easy portage. Our map only showed it to be 200 meters but we knew an extra 100 or more meters were added on by avoiding the top portion. The distance wasn’t the issue. It was the amount of trees fallen across the trail as well as the steep slope near the put-in. Adding to all that, the temperature at the time was 38 degrees Celsius, the bugs were also out in full force, a major storm was approaching and the first campsite we checked out, in a bay to the left, was littered with toilet paper mounds and empty beer bottles; proving once again that the moment a road leads into a wilderness area, a bunch of yahoos arrive and leave trash behind.

We did, however, eventually find a good campsite further along on a much larger island, and once the storm passed, Andy and I cooked up a mess of walleye we caught at the base of a small swift we ran though below the rapid we previously portaged around.

The group was in a good mood at camp. The air temperature had cooled significantly after the storm and a stiff breeze was keeping the bugs down. We all took time to relax on a slab of rock out by the shoreline, doing our own thing. Andy wrote in his journal, I went fishing and Bill and Anne went in for a swim. Everything was going smoothly – that is until Bill passed a kidney stone!

Good news was that he passed it, which we were thankful for since our satellite phone wasn’t working most of the time. Having poor reception to the outside world was also troublesome due to the fact I was being interviewed live by Jeff Good on CBC’s Fresh Air radio show. How frustrating it was to be chatting with a radio host one minute, and then have it go blank the next. Of course, little did I know that the idea of not getting through the radio show was making a better interview! Jeff told me later that it became a morning ritual for most listeners to tune in and see if I’d actually get through to the radio station.

Stay tuned for Part III of the Kopka Adventures.