We woke up at 6:30 am, it was cold, probably about 10 celsius. I made us some coffee and we watched the mist on the lake. So beautiful. We saw a loon family, as Jives built a fire to toast us some bagels with avocado on them. We had a tea as well, one we had bought in Egypt, hibiscus and ginger cinnamon. We then decided to go on an adventure to a small island nearby that we coined “Seagull Island”.

We also decided to go take a look at another campsite near by that we hadn’t looked at the day previous. It was so sunny on the campsite, so we decided to head back to our site and pack up to move to this new location. We were sick of being perpetually damp, and the new site provided a lot of sunlight and rocks for drying out our clothing and shoes. We packed up very quickly and made the single trip over to the new site. The new site was completely worth it, we placed our tent on a much flatter and softer surface and there was plenty of dry wood around for making a fire.

After setting up our new camp, we set out on a longer adventure to visit Little Cauchon Lake. We paddled to the portage spot from Laurel to Little Cauchon, but there was a HUGE group of boy scouts portaging that route, so we waited around until they had cleared the landing spot, and checked out a little waterfall in the south west corner of Laurel Lake.

The portage from Laurel to Little Cauchon was very steep, but only 130 metres long. It was well worth the climb, as Little Cauchon was the prettiest lake we had seen thus far! The lake was full of lilly pads and frogs and turtles. The top of the waterfalls we had previously explored on Laurel Lake was here. There was also an old train bridge. We paddled around the lilies and through the train bridge, ending up in Big Cauchon.

We headed for a green patch on the shore that ended up being a portage route to Carl Wilson Lake. We decided to abandon our canoe and walk the portage route to see Carl Wilson Lake. The portage route was a long one at 1070 metres and very wooded, following a river. There were quite a few footbridges along the way, and lots of mosquitos. The walk took us about 15 minutes, but was well worth it, as Carl Wilson Lake was gorgeous. There was a giant dam at the end of the portage route and the lake was very narrow and marshy with lots of lily pads and flowers. Carl Wilson was very shallow in late August but very still and clear. If the portage was shorter, we would have loved to stay on Carl Wilson Lake.

We walked back to Cauchon Lake, finding many many different varieties of mushrooms along the way. We then paddled back to Little Cauchon and then on to Laurel Lake.