The wind NEVER lets up all evening! We wake to the continual dreadful sound of waves crashing onto the rocks. We eat breakfast and begin the process of tearing down camp. We told everyone we would be back today. So, our shakey plan is that maybe we can slowly make it from campsite to campsite or point to point. Sounded good in theory.

The waves seem to have let off some from last night. We push off, and things intially go surprisingly well. We make it to wear the lake starts to narrow just before the portage to West Pike. Our attempts to paddle past here prove to be futile. We try to walk the canoe a ways. Figuring if we can just get past the point. Walking on wet slippery rocks with 2 foot waves pounding us & the canoe is a certain recipe for disaster as well. We somewhat of a small opening and reconnoiter.

The Black Pearl has already sustained some damage (scratches). And in order to prevent any more, or something more fatal, we pull the packs out and bring our ship to shore. The wind is picking up now and it appears we will be "prisoners" here for the forseeable future.

I manage to find a small opening with a mossy blanket back in the woods a bit. After gathering some small firewood we have our second illegal fire of the trip as we contemplate our next move. Vickie pulls out the extra batch of muffins she made last night to aide in this endeavor.

Studying our Voyageur map we notice there should be a campsite just past this point. But how far? And what kind of effort would it take to get there? After some time I pull out my GPS. This past winter we had loaded a BWCAW map onto it complete with capsites & portages. It indicates that the campsite is only a mere 1000 feet from our present location. I tell Vickie to wait here & I'll go see what kind of effort it will require to make it there.

I find that the actual distance is a bit further than my GPS indicates. But, after some short intial bushwhacking, there is a faint trail most of the way. I tell her to grab her water bottle and whatever she thinks she'll need & we'll head over. I then determine to portage all our gear over. When Vickie questions this logic I reply, "What else am I gonna be able to do today anyways?" It takes some doing, but I manage to get all 3 of our packs to the campsite leaving the Black Pearl behind. Along the way on one of the trips back 'n' forth I stumble across an old Schlitz beer can circa 1973. The beer that made Milwaukee famous! Or so it says on the can. :)

As soon as I get back to camp it looks as if it will rain. It never does rain. But, I quickly set up the tent never the less. This site has a very expansive feel to it. Yet there are no real good tent pads. There are trails running in several directions. Thankfully one from the way we came. I didn't follow it that far, but, I surmise you could walk all the way to the West Pike portage trail from here as well. I really hope the wind dies because the landing is a miserable rocky mess & loading the canoe there in bad conditions would be a ankle injury waiting to happen.

We have chicken fajitas for supper. The wind seems to be letting off just a bit. We hike back to where we stashed the Pearl. We are finally able to walk it around the point. We try paddling but the water is still too rough. I drop Vickie off & walk it back along the shoreline to the campsite. At least we've now got everything here ready to go if it every lets up.

We hold out hope that the wind will let up at somepoint & we can still paddle out tonight. But by the time things slowly start to calm we have already made the call to spent the night here & get a REALLY early start in the morning.

We retire to the tent early. Play a few games of cribbage then call it a day. The wind finally relents about 8:30 - 9:00. After a day 1/2 of having the wind ringing in our ears it was quite the pleasurable contrast to be able to hear loons calling and other birds singing again. Of course Vickie took this to the extreme and must've heard every mouse within a mile of our camp that night. I recall being woken up on a few different occassions. "There's something running into the tent!" "There's a bear digging into the barrel!" "Did you hear that?!?" LOL