Sunday, July 13, 2008: Drove to entry point, paddled/portaged to camp, set up camp and ate steak dinner.

Today was the big day. We woke up early and had a nice pancake and sausage breakfast with Jordans. We drove through Ely and bought 2 lbs of leeches from Voyageur North.

We got to the entry point and were pleased to see that it was pretty barren. We launched right after another family with 2 black Bell canoes. It turned out that they were also going to Horse. We followed them all the way and wound up camping next to them on Horse Lake.

The water was pretty low in Mudro. Last year, the creek was pretty deep and the paddle was easy. This year, the canoe drug along some sandy spots and got stuck on rocks in low water sections. We got out of creek and into Mudro. It was nice to be back paddling on a nice open lake.

It was raining slightly with a very strong, fairly cold wind. At least the wind was at our backs so the paddling was easier.

The portage from Mudro to Sandpit is quite hilly and rocky. It was quite an introduction to my daughters. Everyone worked hard and we made it across with a portage and a half. The water was also low in Sandpit and it was a bit tricky to load the canoes.

Sandpit was pretty and the portage to Tin Can Mike was uneventful but long. We paddled quickly through Tin Can Mike and portaged to Horse. We were finally on our lake.

We paddled past the south sites. We wanted to keep looking. The wind was coming hard out of the north but we kept pushing. We checked out the peninsula site near the Horse River. The family with the black Bell canoes was just setting up. We pushed on to the site north of the peninsula. The site was pretty nice but we wanted to at least check out the island site since I stayed there last year. We left one group and one canoe at the site and took the other canoe to the island site. The island site was nice but it was a bit exposed. There was a strong cold wind and the threat of rain. We figured that a site in the woods would work better. So, we settled in the second site near the Horse River.

We set up tents and started to relax. I had been very stressed. I kept having nightmares that all the Horse Lake sites would be taken and we would be out of luck. I was quite relieved to find nearly all the sites open.

It was fairly cold and windy. Angie and girls were wearing nearly all the clothes they owned. We were starting to wonder if we packed enough clothes. We had a nice steak dinner cooked on the fire grate and started to adjust to the slower rhythm of the Boundary Waters.