Camp breakfast was bacon & eggs. We packed up, left the site about 8:00am and made our way to the Iron Lake Campground. It was hit by the Ham Lake Fire last year. Nearly the entire campground was burned. Only campsite #7 was missed. The up side was the campground has a new, very nice outhouse and a new well.

We unloaded at the put-in, parked the car, and prepared to launch. When I looked up, I saw a bull moose 30 yards away standing in the narrow channel leading to the lake. We watched him for awhile and he didn’t seem bothered by us at all. We decided to paddle past him to get our trip started. We watched him closely but he was as docile as could be and let us pass without flinching.

We started paddling about 9:30 a.m. The wind was blowing brusquely from the east, which is uncommon, and we were paddling right into it, which is not. At 11:00 a.m., just before we reached the portage to Portage Lake, we saw a cow moose and three calves cross the lake. I never have seen a cow moose with three calves before!

We shared the portage with a family from Springfield Missouri and their local guide. They were going to Portage Lake to fish for splake. The 32 rod portage was an easy up-and-over for us but the other group portaged 2 boats and motors. Jim and I waited for them to launch.

The Sawbill Outfitter’s website said that the high temperature for the day was 52 and the low 45. The day was overcast, windy, and drippy. We paddled a very windy Portage Lake to the 230 rod portage to One Island Lake. This was a very tough portage! The trail was up-and-down, but worse was that it had no maintenance and there were large trees blocking the trail at 5 different places. Three of those necessitated putting down the canoe, crawling over the downfall and then pulling the canoe over. That was exhausting work.

Approximately halfway across there is a service road that intersects the portage. After that point the trail got easier. Up until then we were outside the BWCA. It seems that maintenance crews use the road and then clear the trail to the BWCA, but neglect the portion outside the BWCA. The campground host at Flour Lake told us about this road but we opted not to use it. We were there to canoe and portage. Besides, we didn’t know how hard it would be to find and the host told use we probably needed a high-clearance vehicle to drive the road, which we didn’t have.

One Island Lake is nice enough. It is the first lake within the BWCA on this route, but there are no campsites on the lake. We found the portage to Rush Lake located in a burned area on the south end of the lake. The portage is suppose to be 60 rods long but it sure seemed a lot longer – probably because I was so exhausted. It went up a hill, paralleled a bog, and ended in a mucky and flooded landing.

It had started to rain during the portage, the wind had picked up, and the temperature was in the forties. These were hyperthermia conditions. Jim and I paddled to the first campsite on Rush Lake to check it out. It would have been a great site for the summer – a nice, high, exposed point -- but it was too exposed for the current conditions. The wind from the east was really hitting this site. We needed something more protected. We checked the map and decided that the southern site in the bay looked to be the most protected site on the lake.

We had to paddle across the wide part of the lake perpendicular to wind and waves to reach the site. Once there we discovered that the site was burned (as we later found out, it was the only burned site on the lake), but it was late (5:00 p.m.) and we needed to stop. We were wet, cold, and tired. I don’t think I could have gone further, so this was home for the night despite the poor condition of the site.

The immediate fire pit area was OK though there were no sitting logs. There were no trees to string a tarp and the exposed ground was mud in the original camping area. Back from this area there were burnt, down logs all over as well as burnt standing trees, and significant underbrush growing particularly raspberry bushes.

We had to move back a bit into the charred remains of the trees to hang the tarp. We pitched it to block the wind, piled our gear and ourselves under it, and made hot drinks and a hot supper on the stove. The hot food helped a lot … at least for a short time.

I think this was the worse shape I was ever in after the first day of a trip. Both Jim and I were still recovering from viruses and I had just finished with a bout of pneumonia. The site had nothing I would consider a tent pad, but I found a suitable place in front of the tarp to pitch my solo tent. Jim pitched his tent under the tarp. I began to shiver and knew I had to get warm and dry, so I went to bed at 8:00 p.m. Once I got my wet things off and into my sleeping bag I instantly felt better.

It rained off and on throughout the night, but my tent kept me perfectly dry and my 20 degree bag and Big Agnes mattress kept me warm and comfortable.