4.7 miles 6 portages (204 rods)

We are up at 6:30, and breaking camp about 8 A. M. when the fisherman calls up and asks us if we would like fish for our breakfast. I hate to refuse, but with the dishes washed up and our breakfast eaten, we don’t’ want to take time to build up the fire, clean and fry fish. Regular canoe-trip breakfast: pancakes with bacon bits in the batter, and tang. It was delicious until I knew I had missed fresh fish!

We see our fisherman as we pass their campsite further on in Boot Lake. He tells us we missed some good walleye fillets. That doesn’t make me feel any better!

Portage to Fairy Lake. This is really a pretty lake, after a muddy portage the lake is clean and clear and picturesque. We meet a party of Outward Bound girls on the portage. The water on Fairy is still and there are great reflections. I took almost no pictures this day and don’t really know why. We go from Fairy to Gun Lake, and then to Gull Lake. See total of 15 Outward Bound canoes—we are obviously on one of their routes! We have to wait for four canoes at the pond at the portage to Thunder Lake. They chat with us some. It appears that some of them have had a good time and some aren’t so enthusiastic. They warn us of the muddy portages to come.

We make an early camp about noon, as we don’t want to enter the Beartrap River late in the day. Have a lovely campsite on Beartrap Lake, we are the only ones on the lake. (It is the only site.) Finally, some solitude!

We bathe, do laundry, loaf around and enjoy the peace and quiet. There are five resident ducks which I try unsuccessfully to feed, and am only successful in skinning up my knee. The loons are very noisy here for some reason, and there are other calling birds also. Another pesky, bold chipmunk!

Supper is Beef Bourgignon (so-so), freeze dried peas, and yellow cake. Neil has rigged up the oven to work and the cake is good. The laundry is dry and we will probably be glad for this quiet, peaceful afternoon in the nice weather. There is an old bog-type clearing in back of the site; it looks like at one time there was another lake back there. Neil found DRY cedar and it burned really good. I go to sleep dreading the long muddy portage!