Today would be a travel day with Hansen Lake as our goal. We left camp on Mexican Hat around 9:00am. It was sure hard to leave such an awesome site, but we must press on. The route included many short paddles and easy portages as we followed a chain of small streams, waterfalls and small lakes.

The last portion of the trek was a chute into Hansen Lake. Kyle made it first, followed by Greg and Jan. I was last and made the run OK but ended up with some water over the bow. Just when I though I made it safely, my canoe ran up against an overhanging tree, got turned and dumped. Very cold! Thankfully, I was able to grab my fishing poles as they began to sink out of sight. The rest of my gear floated / stayed in the canoe. I was finally able to reach the shore further down the rapids and pull the canoe out of the water and get my gear back into the canoe. Good thing for dry bags!

We made it to a rather crappy camp on an island on Hansen Lake. Given my saturated situation and the fact that it was raining, AGAIN! we decided to settle on this camp to dry out and regroup for the night. The rest of the day it misted and remained cold, which made drying out the gear a bit of a challenge. Even my Spot 2 got a bit wet, but after a little warming over the fire it worked fine again. Whew!!

We pretty much just hunkered down the rest of the day under the tarp tending to the campfire and trying to stay warm. This was by far the worst day of the trip, but an adventure worth telling about nonetheless! :)

Lakes Traveled: Mexican Hat, Glenn, Hansen

5 Portages: 40m, 150m, 100m, 60m, 350m