Day 6: 7.6 miles 0 rods Lakes paddled: Saganaga, Sea Gull River, Gull Lake By the time we got on the water today there was wind. And I had predicted rain today, and looking at the weather I was scared I would be getting my wish. We handled the big waves alright crossing sag from American Point to between Munker and Long Islands. The wind was Blowing Northeast. All the while today I kept hoping that at some point we would get shelter from the wind, didn’t happen though. After passing Long Island the rain started. We had to keep paddling and we headed to the island east of Long and south of Munker with the campsite on it. Here we got on our rain gear, which by the time we did the rain stopped. It didn’t return all day. It rained lightly for 5 minutes I thought we may need to hunker down if it was going to storm… we heard thunder. The wind though was from the south so we didn’t think the storm to the northwest would hit us. There was a 70 year old man who was soloing setting up camp on the island. We visited with him and got his assessment of the weather. We started out again. Only got out of the wind momentarily along the way. Took us a while to get to Seagull River. From Tenor Lake on it was like being in a wind tunnel. I envied those being towed. I was literally paddling as hard as I could. I had to do my best “hard J” just about every stroke. Where the river narrowed the current was stronger and while at those spots we paddled even harder, yet moved even slower. And then the wind would gust and spin us sideways at which point your canoe is now a sail. But we fought and made it through. At the most difficult spot a guy going out to pick up somebody smart enough to pay for a tow had to sit and wait for us for a couple minutes, once we made it to the wider bay he nodded approvingly. We beamed with “we’re-first-timers-and-WE-don’t-need-no-stinking-tow pride”. We got to trail’s end and on the drive home we heard warnings all over the radio for thunderstorms, high winds, hail etc for the boundary waters. Could not have timed the trip for a better time if we’d known the weather forecast a year ahead of time. This trip was a definite success with very little that we need to change.

Our total trip was 48 Miles, 1236 rods.