We slept in until about 8:30 and woke up to a warm, sunny day. The first morning in camp proved to be hectic with no one really knowing their duties. After we got camp cleaned up, and had breakfast of oatmeal, we were off. Wind was strong, but we were protected by an island to start out. We reached the open part of Loon and were met with 1.5-2 foot rollers. I decided to have the boys quarter into the waves. I didn’t say anything at the time, but I was nervous, none of the boys had any experience with open water and big waves. I was in the kayak at this point and felt comfortable. The guys handled the situation perfectly. We made it to the West side of Loon and traveled North to our next portage. John at VNO told us this would be one of our toughest, and he was right. 173 rods of mud and rocks straight uphill. Cundiff complained, but we pushed on. We were rewarded with a beautiful view when we reached Slim Lake. A muddy landing and some beautiful flowers. We moved up through Slim and raced the canoes through the narrows. The 52 rod portage to Section Three Pond seemed long. We stopped and ate lunch at our next stop. PB&J on tortillas was a big hit. It was at this lunch that we discovered Kool Aid!!! Mix it with lake water, and it tastes like pure heaven.

I assured the guys that wind should be our ally for the rest of the trip. After 52 rods to South Lake, my promise proved true. We held up our paddles and cruised to the next portage. South Lake was a pretty, small lake.

Steep Lake gets its name from a 120 uphill, rocky portage. Tyler and Troy once again proved their worth on the trip by blasting up the hill without even one rest break. Cundy and I were not as strong. We quickly determined that a guy on each end of the kayak was a poor idea. Next time, we’ll get a yoke, or a solo canoe.

Eager to continue our journey, we paddled through Steep on to our next lake. Spirits, although dampened by an already long day of travel were high. Everyone seemed to be enjoying the nearly endless fantastic views and new environment. At the end of our 45 rod portage to Eugene Lake, we met another group of people led by a 70 year old woman. They seemed to be tired and traveling slow, only covering half the distance that we had in the same amount of time. I was a bit worried they were going to take a campsite that we wanted on Little Beartrap Lake. We ended up passing them a lake later.

The campsite on Little Beartrap was already occupied, so we had to push on. Everyone had their own ideas about when to stop. Cundiff wanted the next available campsite, I didn’t want to settle, and Ryan, Tyler, and Troy were undecided, although I think they were ready to pick a campsite and relax. We came to a consensus to keep moving on and stay an entire day at the next site. There were plenty of campsites on the next few lakes and we were sure to find one. But then there was a 200 rod portage. The portage from Beartrap to Thumb was long as advertised, but my favorite of the trip. We walked through and ancient forest of Cedar and pine. Rob, Cundy and Ryan kicked up a grouse, and met Tyler and Troy at the end. Ryan could hardly wait until the layover day. His backpack’s weight was in direct proportion to how much we ate.

Since we had gone this far, we weren’t going to settle for any old site on Thumb. John circled two sites on finger and we were only a mile and 9 rods away. We had to find a great site. The 9 rod portage turned out to be a 3 rod liftover. We have reached our lake. Now it was time to find a site. I steered us to the right and was wrong. Tyler had a map now and pointed us in the correct direction. He made sure to let me know that HE got us back on track. Like he had been doing it all trip and was the only one who could read a map. This newfound map skill, and Tyler’s arrogance about it, would be with us for the rest of the trip.

We found the site on the southwest corner of the big island on Finger and set up camp. This would be our home for the next day and a half. It was a beauty of a site with a huge 200 ton rock(we weighed it) left by the glaciers. Three nice tent sites and a honey of a kitchen area welcomed us to this site. We made dinner of outback pizza which was a big hit, and relaxed. Cundy and I even took a swim.