Saturday June 16th, 2008 We pack up camp by 6:45am and head east into Thursday Bay. Great day for traveling, cool and sunny. Lots of water moving. Greated by an eagle as we make the turn in Crooked that leads to Wednesday Bay. Getting a little worried about the volume of fast moving water and what the Horse River will look like. We press on. Meet some friendly campers on their 2nd day in, heading for Friday. Stop in Wednesday for a break and a snack. We start to meet canoes going north quite regularly now. We make it past the pictographs, much lower then last year. We hear lower Basswood falls, nothing like last year. Sneak up to the portage and enjoy the view. Perplexed as how the egg shaped rock is where it is. Mosquitos find us for the first real time. Paddle down the Horse Highway... I mean River. 6 canoes met before the first portage. We continue to meet groups but not on the portages, save 1. Paddle through 2 of the 3 rapids at the end of the Horse River with 1 pull around. Helped out one group with our spare paddle for short while, as the front canoer snapped their wood bent shaft like a twig in the rapids! Amazing the rear canoer managed up the rapid to safety. They duct taped the 2 pieces together and said they were good to go. Hope they made it out ok. Camped on Tin Can Mike Lake to make an early escape in the morning to the truck.