Today we slept in until about 8AM, fully knowing we had a long day ahead of us. Our plan was to head out of our site on Knife Lake and hopefully make it over to a site on Jasper Lake to spend our last night on. We made it to our first portage of the day, a 25 Rod Portage going to Eddy Lake at Eddy Falls. We were met at the portage by a group with 4 canoes. We talked to a lady from this group who asked us where we were headed to today, and we told her that we hopefully could make it to a site on Jasper. She indicated that her group was going to Alpine Lake, which meant they would be passing by our campsite. After making this portage in record time, we clearly observed that the group ahead of us, much to our dismay, were a lot quicker than us as they were using lighter gear. We hoped to be able to follow them all the way to our next site, however by the time we made it to the 15 rod portage into Jenny Lake they had already lost us. In no time we were across Jenny Lake and doing another 15 rod portage into Annie Lake with another 15 rod portage to Ogishkemuncie Lake. By the time we made it to Ogish we had the wind to our back and were making pretty good time, making it through the narrows and after a 38 rod portage we were on Kingfisher Lake. On Kingfisher we attempted to make the rapids into Jasper, however after checking it out, we decided we would paddle back and do the 25 rod portage into Jasper Lake. Again we paddled across Jasper with the wind at our back and found the last campsite before the falls into Alpine. We were exhausted and decided to pull up to this empty camp site. By this time we were in the Burn Zone and there was little to no shade. I found the only spot of shade on the rock face on the edge of the site and took a 30 minute nap. I was then waken up by Slick again, and was informed that we would be doing one last portage today, and we were going to find a site on Alpine Lake. We quickly made it to the 45 rod portage into Alpine, doing this portage was a bit more difficult for me as I was exhausted from travels of today. My back was aching and the temperature had to have been around 90º all day. After posing for a group picture at the falls into Alpine, we found an interesting rock just below the surface of the water. We then paddled around a couple of islands before we spotted an open site. As we rounded the corner, here came another group heading right for it. Jones shouted to them, hey do you guys want this site? And they answered that we could have it. We quickly parked our canoes and set up camp. Immediately Jones and Craig paddled back to the large rock under the water so they could pose for a picture. As they were leaving two members of the National Forest Service stopped by and asked Slick and I if we minded if they checked our site for “Hawkweed”. We told them to go right ahead, and discussed our travels with them. Shortly thereafter they were on their way to another site, and Jones and Craig were returning. We built a fire and ate some rice and canned corn. Slick decided to cast his line off the campsite, and quickly got snagged on a rock or limb about 50 feet from the shoreline. He decided that his tube bait was worth wading in the water to go get. On his way back I spotted a brand new looking rattle trap, about 20 feet off of the rock I was standing on, and he made his way to it, diving down about 8 feet to get it. After finishing dinner and dishes it was getting close to dark, so we decided one last night of fishing was in order. Jones and I set sail one direction, and the other two went towards Seagull Lake, where we would be heading in the morning. We all caught a few fish and enjoyed the beautiful sunset. When we made it back to camp it was already dark. Earlier in the day it was decided that we weren’t going to set up a tent on this site due to lack of mosquitoes in the burn zone. We all stretched our sleeping bags out on the large rock at waters edge. It was a perfect “last night” in the wilderness. We stayed up late discussing what we had just experienced, how we all plan on doing it again, and what the trip ahead would entail. We were all amazed at the number of stars that we could see and how dark it got up here compared to at home. Sometime in the night I was awakened by some cussing at me about my snoring.

Totals: 8 Lakes (South Arm Knife, Eddy, Jennie, Annie, Ogish, Kingfisher, Jasper, Alpine) - 178 rods