We woke up at around 7 and headed out to go for a walk. At 8 the lodge staff served us a hearty northwoods breakfast of scrambled eggs, sausage, potatoes, and toast. This was a great way to start our adventure. After breakfast we did a final check on all of our gear, fed Slim Jim (our 105 lb yellow lab) and headed to the entry point. The parking lot was packed with cars and we waited while another couple parked their car and got ready to launch their canoe. As I got ready to back down the ramp, the guy walked over to our truck. As it turns out it was Greg Busker (gbusk) from the BWCA.com site and we chatted for a few minutes before he and his wife pushed off from the landing. I finished putting the boat in the water and started to load up. Man, I’ve never had so much gear for a BWCA trip in my life! I have never brought a cooler on a canoe trip but it sure was nice to have along since I didn’t have to paddle or portage with it… I had to separate the trailer from the truck and park them in separate spots to allow us to park but we finally finished the job and pushed off. My balky old Johnson 9.9 HP motor took about 20 pulls to get it started but we were peacefully drifting in the light 5 mph breeze out of the west so we gave it not concern (this would not be the case on our exit). After about 2 miles we caught up with Mr and Mrs Gbusk and drifted for a moment to take a photo and discuss campsites before we headed off on our way. As we progressed down the lake we noticed that there were no open sites. This was a bit of a concern since the motorized permit does not allow you to portage to any other lakes. What would we do if there was nothing open? Finally, we found an open site on the northeast end of the lake between the Mountain and West Pike portages. It was an ok site for the two of us and Slim Jim but it would have been pretty tough for a larger group to make it work. The site had one tent pad which was kind of uneven and a decent kitchen/fire grate area but not much else. We set up the tent and tarp, fetched water for the Basecamp filter, and got some lunch ready. After lunch we headed out into the woods to gather firewood. Tawney got a ton of great kindling and birch bark and I worked on some of the larger logs with my Sven saw. Once all the wood was cut and stacked under the tarp, we put on our swimsuits and went in the lake for a nice refreshing dip. It was about 80 degrees and humid so it felt awesome to float around. After our swim we sat out in the warm sun on the rocks at the end of the point for the rest of the afternoon just talking and reading. As evening approached, I made a couple of vodka lemonade cocktails and got the coals going. We had a fantastic dinner of asparagus and New York Strips along with a couple of cups of Black Box Cabernet to wash it down. The day was capped off with a beautiful sunset, after which Tawney retired to the tent to read and I lingered by the campfire with another cocktail until around 10.