Sunday, July 14, 2013 Day one, our group met up in Indianapolis in the afternoon with the plan to drive straight through to the Outfitter. Long drive, very long drive. At one point we stopped at a rest stop to sleep for a few hours. All the drivers were too tired to go on. Some in the group had worked a full day before we hit the road to drive all night. I slept in my seat in the van, others slept on picnic tables and park benches. When we arrived at Sawbill lake, we spent the first night camping on their camp grounds so we could have an early start the next day. The ground was softer then the park benchs. First day on the water, the morning looked like it was going to rain and it did. We entered at 37- Kawishiwi Lake our group was excited to start. When I was finally on the water I couldn’t believe I was here. All the challenges to make this trip happen finally paid off. Our route took us through the 2011 Pagami Creek fire area. New growth is back in the area but you can still tell was fire. One of our longer portages of the day we ran into a couple portage angles. Two young women traveling the opposite direction carried a couple of our packs back when they headed back to pick up their remaining gear. Didn’t learn their names, but I will think of them as a couple angles. It rained most of the day and some of the portages the mosquitoes were so thick we either had to portage in our bug nets or end up with a mouth full of bugs. Our first day ended on Koma Lake. The camp site we picked was not big enough for our group. The 8 of us used 6 tents and 2 hammocks. Half of our group picked another site on a small island.
Kawishiwi Lake, Square Lake, Kawasachong Lake, Polly, Lake, Koma Lake