Kondrionk-#16

Left Le Domaine at 10 AM on Tuesday. I was more than concerned about crowds as there was a group of two hundred youth camping at Le Domaine. It turned out that half had just returned and half were leaving on another of the loop trips that depart from that access point.
If you are a late arrival a nice site with tables and tent room is in the pines, and bathroom facilities with showers are nearby. Of course I had forgotten the TP and was grateful for the small grocery store in the complex. There is also a gas station and a 24 hour restaurant, but the area is not noisy.
The folks who work at Canot-Camping La Verendrye are most helpful. I had arrived the day before and seeing the mob had decided NOT to camp there. They directed me to the SEPAQ building(in the same complex) where I got a camping permit for one of the campgrounds available to hunters and fishermen. It was a fine quiet lovely spot where I visited some new friends.
Fishermen and canoeists can co-exist: motorboaters are not permitted to use the canoe camping sites and must use one of the road accessible sites. Conversely canoeists must not use the road sites unless they have a SEPAQ permit (different from a canot camping permit)
I met one other party on the first portage and as I was going intentionally slowly, they were soon gone. The first half of the trip (counterclockwise on the loop) has uphill portages, but they were fine.
After about a 15 K day I camped on Lac Poulter and one fisherman passed by and two canoeists.
There is ablolutely no pressure on most campsites, indeed some looked very lightly used.
The nexy day was deliberately short as I was plaaning on how to best arrive at the most crucial campsite on Lac des Deux Iles, so I camped at the end of the SE arm early.
The campsite was small but I thought clean until getting up the next morning and for the second morning in a row...SLUGS under and on the tent. Brushed them off time to go.
Had five portages plus a beaver dam. Whats in a dam? Plenty! This one was OLD and downstream there was almost no water for 200 m. Time to wade in the muck and then over the rocks.
On to the 1475 m which is just a long gradual uphill for the most part.
I paddled across a small pond to the melody of logging trucks. I couldnt see them but I could hear them and unfortunatlely I found that the 320 m portage partly followed the same road that they were going 100 km/h on. Needless to say I hugged the bushes!
Soon we were on the next flooded pond to the 270 m portage which was the steepest, and rockies t as it follows an old disusedlogging road uphill. There are emergency campsites halfway up and at the end. The latter was quite nice but marred by a mosquito filled mudhole!
Paddling onto Lac des Deux Iles I found the only campsite mercifully empty and in a lovely grove of pines. NO slugs!
Next beautiful day (they were all nice with only one morning of light rain and always favorable winds) two easy portages awaited me and I arrived at the end of the last one on Lac Kondiaronk.
This lake is special. It looks like a Canadian Shield lake. Lac Byrd has the occasional appearance of being a flooded body of water (reservoir). Although there is road access, for the next 25 k I would see no person, just several moose and several dozen loons.
Campsites are enough in number and all very nice and well spaced.
The next day I had my French lesson. In English S often denotes "swift" or moving water. No big deal. I paddle up to it and gee why so much noise and why is there a big logjam at the top? So I get out and portage and yikes. "S" en francais means "Seuil" or ledge. This one was 20 feet high aka, waterfall.
There is a succession of short and annoyingly close together short portages along the Kondiaronk R which just have to be endured, but by lunch I was on Barker. If you can stop at the beach campsite. It only has room for one tent but is beautiful. Alas my plans were to go on farther past the fishing campsite at Antostagan(two boats both on shore) and camp at one of the many beach sites on that lake. I had had no camping neighbors for four nights but on the last my luck ran out. Fortunately my next door neighbors were late, tired,interested only in a swim, a meal and a nap and German.
Under sort of cloudy skies I left early the next day and after the final 12 km and 3 short portages (I fell out of the boat getting in to it on the 50 m one, which should be runnable in a group)
arrived at le Domaine in time for lunch and un pogo at the restaurante.

La Verendrye doesnt have glorious cliffs nor many rock outcroppings on some lake, but each lake has beach sites.The scenery is peaceful with many wetlands and always the prospect of wildlife. Some have alot of beach sites. Forest is primarily cedar and pine and alder at the shore with birch and maple and that ol fire strarter, balsam along with red and black spruce and hamtamack. Some lakes show signs of being artificially created, but I dont know for sure.
Campsites usually are clean though I found fish bones at one. I was blessed with a table on the site I camped on Kondiaronk(its funny how with more age you appreciate not having to bow over the stove on a rock),Green (one blue) barrels have holes in the top and are sequestered for your latrine.
Motorboats may occasionally be seen, however I went for two and a half days and saw no one.
I found this to be a stress free and easily paced trip. I never worked too hard or too long any day!