For those who are familiar with the book "Toward Magnetic North", I should note that Annie Benonie is the daughter of one Alphonse Chipewyan (Dzeylion) from the book. He would have guided Ober and Billie, if his wife hadn't objected. But ya know today I couldn't care less. I am too tired and hungry and the night is going to be a long uncomfortable one.

On the up side, at lunch one cast landed a five pound trout that we cooked on a stick. We also watched an eagle being tormented by a tern Here's hoping the rapids are OK. I hate camping at the top, and would like to have them over with.

Lining is very very difficult since the current is ferocious right to the shore and the banks are undercut so you are always in deep water ... from knees to hips to up to my neck in a few places. Even against the shore there were lots of bad holes and tight turns that threatened to pull the boat into the main current. In a couple of the deeper sections along the shore I lost my footing and was literally swimming with the boat in hand until I could scramble back to my feet or grab the bank. We had both ropes on the back and would let it down 20 feet at a time. Then the bottom person would hold the boat until the top person could leap-frog down about 40 feet. We lined the entire rapid river right except for one section below a little mid-stream island where we had to do a wild ferry from right to left to miss a very nasty piece of lining.

The entire rapid has burned on both banks and there are sweepers and strainers all along. Thank God I had a small saw that Ric Drediger gave me years back, or we would still be there. Have you ever tried to use an axe to cut a tree that keeps bouncing in and out of the water? I must have cut ten longs that were more than six inches in diameter and as many small ones.

Three and a half hours to go about 2 kilometers. It beat portaging but not by much. For the serious river freaks, the drop in the 2 kilometers is 14 meters. Wahoo ... bob sled run or what!

To top it off we had a wild east wind into our face at the bottom of the rapid. Add this to my wet-to-the-neck clothing and I was shivering like I had hypothermia.

I know a great place for a lunch so we paddled like mad to get there. What did we find but a bunch of fishermen and guides from Wollaston Lake Lodge. They fed us deep fried fish and beans and bread and corn and Coke and pan fried potatoes and get this ... chocolate Macadamia nut cookies. Too good!

We stopped early, after only getting about 8 miles. We are wet and tired and the wind plain old sucks. It's raining now. We are sitting under our kitchen tarp and pizza is simmering. This spot is easily a hundred times better than last night's.

Oh... we saw a two year old bull moose at the top of the rapids.