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I wonder if I could find Alan Gage to ask him about his trip...
Here I am! Happy to answer any questions. I'll send you a PM in case you don't see this.
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Paddling back up river would not be my cup of tea, but the majority of the miles would probably go just as easy if not easier, if you get the damn winds we had. The portaging I would only want to do once. I think I would cover more river as True North suggests, and pay for the ride home.
My logic was that for the cost of a plane ride or shuttle from Bloodvein Village back to Red Lake I could take two weeks of unpaid vacation time. I'd rather spend the time on the water rather than at work paying for the plane ride.
Like you guessed though upstream travel wasn't very difficult except for a couple rough days downstream of Lake Kautunigan (sp?) where all the CI and CIIs are bunched together. Many of the swifts I could paddle up. They could get annoying when there were a lot of them back to back but for the most part they were a fun challenge. The portages, and there are A LOT of them coming upstream, did get old. But you can't beat the feeling of getting off the river and back into lake country where you only have two or three portages per day.
I was unlucky in that I had less favorable winds coming upstream than going down. The last three days of the trip found me paddling directly into very strong headwinds. From the south the first day and the last two days from the east of all directions. Hardly seemed fair.
I'd definitely do the river in both directions again however and plan to do so on a different river this coming summer.
Alan