Cold pancakes (a tribute to Verlen Kruger’s preferred paddling meal) and back on the water at 6:15 am with twilight coming soon still 3 hours behind schedule. Not known to us at the time, Team BeaVer Fever had passed the Norwegians in the night and we were about 4 miles ahead. We talked about where we thought they made it to last night as we paddled up the Loon River. We did not know that they had actually seen our headlamps in the early morning as we left camp. For them the chase was on, for us tired muscles and little rest made for a lazy start to paddling. At first I wasn’t too concerned. I figured once their muscles warmed up they could paddle again at a good pace. But miles later, we were still unable to paddle with any gusto (I call this “Lilly dipping”). Now I grew deeply concerned at the slow pace and what was looking to be the end of our chance to fulfill our Purpose of 124 hours. We discussed our slow pace, I flat out stated we need to do better, and I gave a couple pointers on paddling technique to try to improve our speed.

After the 2 mechanical portages, we entered Lac La Croix Lake. We pulled over at some cliffs to look at the pictographs there and the Norwegians caught up to us exchanging some quick updates and they were off heading north with today’s southerly winds. Further up the lake, they stopped for some food which allowed MAKK and me to catch up with them. We paddled side by side exchanging more stories of last night’s paddling. I sensed the Norwegians were paddling hard so as to not let us pass so I smiled inside and paddled harder without making it look like I was trying. MAKK was smiling inside too and soon our 2 boats were flying down the lake. I think MAKK and I did a good job of pretending to be paddling without effort. I know, I know we’re not racing…but it was still fun to maybe get into their heads a little. I pulled aside and our group had a little laugh over what we just did.

We paddled east through the main part of Lac La Croix before having to turn south into some substantial headwinds. This required everyone to paddle hard even though our muscles didn’t want to, sucking strength and willpower away. Arriving near Fish Stake Narrows around 3:00 pm, WhiteWolf and MeatPuppet questioned the wisdom of continuing any further for the day as we were about to face the same stiff headwind again. I was not really too surprised as ours bodies would love nothing more than to rest. And there was a case to be made that this next headwind area would have bigger waves and could be dangerous. A group consensus was reached to continue far enough to take a peek at the condition of the waves and if too large, we would stop at the last campsite available before having to make a crossing. When we got to that campsite it was already occupied! “Perfect”, I thought to myself, “now we have to keep going!” The group agreed, we talked how to safely paddle in the 2’ waves, and off we went. All went well and we portaged to Bottle Lake and then we entered Iron Lake. Once again, tired paddlers wanted to stop for the day. Giving in to their pleas, I agreed but with the understanding that we would get an earlier start than planned to try to make up for lost progress. We stopped to camp on Three Island at one of WhiteWolf’s favorite sites. I felt like I may have pushed too hard that first day and now hoped with a shorter day today and more rest tonight, the energy levels would return to us. I think all were disappointed by the fact that we were falling further behind our Purpose but we were still in a great mood in camp that evening with time to enjoy a fire and a hot meal. We were not beaten, just bruised a little. A short 12 hours on the move and “only” 38 miles traveled today has put us 12 miles and 6 hours behind schedule.