We pulled into the intake for the portage, a narrow opening on the near shore of the lake, well beyond the canoe launching area. It was packed with pickerel weed and another, exquisitely lovely aquatic-flowering plant swaying in white-flowered profusion in the gentle wash of our watercraft. As usual, our son leaped first out of the canoe and pulled us closer toward the rise of land where we'd have to balance our way out of the canoe, hopping onto terra firma. At least on this occasion we didn't have to stumble over the loaded contents of cargo cluttering the canoe bottom.

We embarked on our hike under continued lowering skies, but the wind seemed to have shifted and as we entered the forest, the trail taking us initially alongside the shore of the lake, about several metres from it, gradually veered more off into the interior and the air became becalmed, the forest shielding us from the wind and we began to feel warmer though the ambient temperature was still around 9C.

It's clear that the forest is usually damp close to the shoreline, and the interior was also fairly soggy, given the unrelenting rain that has poured down in the park interior for over a week. The forest there bears some resemblance to that which exists in our own Ontario wooded ravine nearby our home, but it is decidedly different. Evergreens, for one thing, predominate, though there are also hardwoods in evidence, just not in the majority, and it is the towering pines, the fir, spruce and hemlock one notices. In this part of the park there is no sign of cedars.

The hike was enjoyable, being able to stretch our legs, the forward momentum pleasing to our hike-sensitive preferences, our eyes pleased as well with the unfolding shortened vistas of the forest surrounding us. The smells, the sounds, the terrain, all reminded us of our past explorations of this wonderful nature preserve in the natural geological splendour of this province and its abundance of fresh-water lakes.

When the trail, after a series of clambers over rises, boulders and tree roots narrowing the passage came to its end, we found ourselves looking out over a small lake. Wet Lake it certainly was, but which lake isn't wet? At one end what appeared to be a bit of a swamp, at the other, far in the distance, the bright orange circle posted on a far-off tree signalling a camp site.

The place we now found ourselves in was far more pleasant than where we had begun this portage trail; wide, attractively appealing in a number of rocks that presented as seating arrangements, and far, far warmer in atmosphere, and an absence of thrusting wind than what we had been experiencing the last few days. Our son divested himself of the small backpack that invariably accompanies him on any jaunt, and withdrew a tiny stove, proceeding to boil water for tea. Although his parents never eat lunch, he does, and we sat comfortably there, viewing the aspects of the lake, talking between ourselves of other, years-ago expeditions we had shared, and drinking tea. Riley was extremely attentive to the food being consumed, offering to sacrifice his 'diet' to aiding in ridding the backpack of any excess food.

When we eventually began packing up to retrace our hike back to the canoe and Mallard Lake, our son pulled an empty bag out of his backpack; his motto might be 'never without bags', and proceeded to carefully gather glass shards and intact beer bottles, along with tins and discarded food wraps and other detritus that partyers disguised as nature-lovers in their gross neglect of responsibility had chosen to leave behind, to haul it back to our campsite, include it with our own waste to be carried out of the park. In the case of bottles and cans, which are restricted in the park, that bag accompanied us home so our son could separate its contents into our recycle bins.

Our paddle back to our campsite gave us the impression that the wind had died down, that it was becoming warmer, that there might be a break in the cloud cover, and we felt quite heartened by this perception. Which we were disabused of shortly after landing at our beautifully welcoming campsite.