One of the campers dropped us off at the top of the dam. We piled our gear on a cluster of rocks and boulders beneath a ledge. After carefully carrying the boats down to the water, we began the precarious work of loading them off of the rocks in the rain. We packed our rain gear last, and launched.
A few houses looked out over the lake.
At the top of the lake, we arrived at the Rapid Blanc Dam. The nearest boat ramp left us with another long(1.5 kilometers) portage.
Scouting out the route, we passed an abandoned village of two story brick houses. Beyond the village, we found lots of strawberries, raspberries, and blueberries beside the road. Eventually, we arrived at the boat ramp. Wheeling the boats along the rocky, muddy, road through the downpour didn’t seem like any fun at all, so when power plant employees passed us in a pickup truck we waved them to a stop.
They explained that they weren’t allowed to help us move our boats and gear, but would anyway. While the furnished and well maintained houses, abandoned in 1964 and now used by the electrical company, would not be good places for us to spend the night, a storage garage with outlets for our electronics and live in squirrels to spook us would be.
Soon we were warm, dry, and our gear neatly ready to launch the next morning at the boat ramp. Fresh wild strawberries are wonderful.
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