8 miles / 13 km Highgate NFCT campsite - Put-in after Sheldon Springs Portage
Wet
Key words for today
Despite the respite from the rain yesterday evening, it rained cats and dogs all night and we packed up this morning in the pouring rain. Everything is wet or damp. On the first portage we met up with Kurt Valenta, an outdoor educator who offered us a lift and WE REFUSED. Are we mad? We did however accept his offer of filling our water container and he drove off to the library with our water container and when we arrived at the put-in it was already there filled with fresh water. (We have been warned not to drink water out of the Missisquoi river, even if we filter it.)
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Later in the day, at the start of the Sheldon dam portage we were offered a 2nd lift which we refused. Certainly mad especially since 100 meters into the portage the tire of the cart disintegrated completely and we had to carry the packs and canoe ourselves up the steep hill and along the portage.
We also tried lining up the river today. We lined up the first rapid and it took an hour.
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First rapid |
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Still smiling |
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Then we found a portage sign to get past the ledges and Old Dam site at East Highgate. On return to the river we lined up yet another set of rapids, both not easy and took some time. Then we had a few km of flat water befoe the rapids just below Sheldon Springs dam came into site. Yet 2 more rapids to line and ferry and pull and we got to the take out.
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Take out at Sheldon Springs portage |
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It was a steep climb on a paved road and a walk thru a solar panel energy farm especially since our second set of tires disintegrated at this point.
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Too late and too tired to get to the Lucier campsite we set up camp on the portage path in the field where the path goes down from the road to the marshy and wet get-in.
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