noon
A rather faint trail showed through the cedar thickets . It was the beginning of the main portage that ran three miles northwest , straight across country to the Abitibi River . They had been mortally afraid of overrunning the spot . They boiled the noon kettle of tea to fortify themselves for the long crossing . Then they unshipped the runners from the toboggan , put on their moccasins and snowshoes , and started ashore across a range of low , densely wooded hills . The trail was blazed at long intervals , but not cleared , and it was hard , exasperating work to get the toboggan through the snowy tangle . After two hours they came out on the crest of a hill overlooking a great river that ran like a gleaming steel-blue ribbon far into the north .