Regardless, the sunrise was a far cry from yesterday’s soul-searing defeat.

Up early and working hard, I made it to Lake Kishkutena early afternoon. From Kishkutena, all that separated me from
the Manoomin system was the Height of Land Portage.

Anything with a formal name on an official map ought to be there, right? Like Toronto or The Rocky Mountains.

Anything with a formal name showing up on multiple maps, official or otherwise, has to be cast in stone, right?

Perhaps true for the center of the universe like hogtown, but not at all so for Height of Land Portage. The portage us a figment of some
map-maker’s imagination the likely result of some overzealous, poorly paid contractor whose job it is to digitize paper maps. I know whereof I speak having once been paid to check the work of some offshore digitizer turning Canadian Hydrographic Charts into 0’s and 1’s.

Arriving at the mapped location of the portage, I very carefully scrutinized the shoreline from a paddle length away for two kilometers in either direction.

There is no portage. I am, for lack of a better word, screwed.