Sunday, May 30, 2010 We are awake before the alarm at 4:30 am. Surprised at how bright it is outside already. We are excited to start the day. Hit the shower and pack up our stuff and head to the Entry Point on Snowbank. Unpack the truck, snap a few pics, load the canoe and on the water by 5:45 am. Snowbank is beautiful, the water is calm. We see a couple of loons and a bald eagle on our way across the lake. We arrive at the portage to Boot at 6:15 am. I am relieved to be off of the "Big" water. We stop to fish at the portage. I catch a small large mouth bass and so does Stephen. We shed a few layers of clothes. It is warmer than we expect. We are ready for the first portage. He helps me get my pack on we are off. We are organized to single portage and do so this time and for every other portage throughout our trip. 50 rod portage to a small pond then short paddle and another 30 rods to reach Boot. I'd probably rate the portages 3/10. Pretty rocky. At the end it was a boulder field trying to put the canoe in the water was a bit tricky. We meet 2 other canoes and 4 young guys upon are entering Boot. They crowd right in and do not even attempt to wait for us to get out of their way. Paddle across Boot was uneventful, easy paddle. Portage to Ensign 220 rods. It is kind of rough, up hill, rocky, roots, some boardwalk. We rested 3 times. I would probably rate 7/10. We paddle on Ensign and took a campsite on an island. Its okay, probably 2 star. Good landing but uphill to campsite, about 3 tent pads none of which were great, not a good place for tarp and only 1 tree for the bear rope. We set up camp. It is now 10:45 am. We mess around camp for a while and decide to eat lunch. Lunch is summer sausage sticks, string cheese, and crackers. Off to Slash Lake for fishing. Just after we enter Splash, Stephen catches a decent smallmouth. We paddle on in. I am trolling a spoon hoping to catch a northern. I thought I was hung up on a log or something. I couldn't reel it in at all. I handed the rod to Stephen as he was hoping we wouldn't have to snap the line. He pulled and pulled and it finally budged. I had caught a nice large mouth bass. We pull over to a rock and take some pics then release the fish. Clouds roll in and the wind picks up. We decide to head back towards our campsite. We have to stop and pick up the canoe over the shallow area between Splash and Ensign. It is now raining harder, we put on our rain gear. We continue to fish a little bit with no luck. Wind dies down a bit so we paddle on to our campsite on Ensign. We changed our wet clothes and napped in the tent for a bit. We have a visitor at our campsite. Its a snapping turtle. She (okay I'm assuming here) appeared to be digging a nest. She was around all evening but was gone in the morning. Hole that she dug was covered. Then it is dinner time about 5:30 pm. Dinner is Spanish rice with rehydrated ground venison on tortillas with shredded cheese. Neither one of us is very hungry. We cannot eat more than about a 1/3rd of the meal. We end up packing out the rest with us. It tasted okay but was way too much food for 2 people. We ate our dinner under the tarp as it continues to rain. Dishes cleaned, food bag hung, canoe tied down. Now what? We reviewed the map and the travels of the day. We had traveled about 11 3/4 miles total. Bugs on this site not too bad. We are tired, off to bed around 8:30 pm. Snowbank Lake, Boot Lake, Ensign Lake, Splash Lake