Saturday, May 24, 2008 Day 10 they started across Minn Lake and planned to take the river to Martin Bay and Lac La Croix where Jan would pick them up the next day at noon. Dave and Mark took the lead and steamed off. Completely out of character, they didn’t check their compass for a while and when they stopped, found they had gone several miles south rather than north. Dave blamed it on lack of a map, and heck, who uses a compass anyway? (Bryan's note - Pete and Bryan knew exactly where to go and Dave and Mark were oblivious to our shouts, whistles and calls) Luckily they could still get to LLC by way of McAree Lake and a couple of relatively easy portages so there was no real time lost. When they got to LLC, there was Jan, zooming new groups down to Bottle Portage. 12 miles, 2 portages (14, 64) and they found Campers Island… the prearranged pick up point. We observed numerous small sunken islands - the high waters submerging bushes and trees.

The first thing reaching Camper's island, Mark took a run and a flying leap into the icy water to celebrate this trip.

He didn’t last long. One dive and he was off to get some dry clothes. We found a few things cached on the island, including a roll of chicken wire. This appeared to be another long used base camp site. Camp was pitched and Pete whipped up some Chicken & Parmesan Angel Hair Pasta for dinner. Everyone enjoyed reminiscing the events of the last ten days around the fire when a serious storm started blowing in. It was a fast moving and powerful but they only caught the southern edge of it. There was a lot of wind and rain… but nothing to cause damage. The nice thing about a good storm is the deep sleep you get.