Monday, August 20, 2012 Gneiss Lake, Maraboeuf Lake After my first goodnight sleep in two days, I awoke at 6am to make breakfast, eggs and cheese wrapped in a tortilla, yum. We broke camp and were back in the canoe by 8:30. We made our way out of clove lake via a 48 rod portage. Clove lake to Gneiss lake was, in my opinion, the most beatiful section of the Granite river, despite the damage done by the Ham Lake fire.  We were all about covering ground today so the fishing poles stayed tucked in the canoe. We then had a 72 rod, labeled swamp portage, which wasn't bad despite the name. Then a 32 rod into Gneiss Lake. We were hoping for an island site on Gneiss, but it was occupied so we continued on thru Devils Elbow. We pulled out the fishing poles and landed on the shore in the elbow and tried a little fishing. We were unsuccesful and some clouds began to move in and it threatened to rain.  The mood changed quickly from carefree to panic, as the rain began to fall, we pulled out our rain gear and paddled quickly as we entered Maraboeuf Lake looking for a campsite. We passed the first site, which had few trees, and opted for the 2nd site on Maraboeuf that had plenty of trees and a very nice rock outcropping to pull our canoe up on. As rain still threatened we quickly set up camp and tarps, fearing the worst. Just as soon as we set up, the sun came out and we were back to blue skies. We quickly made some mountain house for lunch and decided to try our luck fishing. We canoed all over the lake with no luck, we did find this huge spider on a rock, aprox 4" long.  We returned to the small bay next to our campsite and found a drop off from 10ft to 30ft and began catching smallmouth. Sean hooked a very large pike but it broke his line when we were trying to land it. He definatelly outfished me this day at least 4 to 1.  We made dinner of fish and mountain house and broccoli soup as the light began to fade to dark, and then to the most spectacular sight you could see. The crystal clear sky was perfect for the viewing of stars and we even could see what i believe was Mars and Neptune. With no rain threatening, we took down our rain flys and slept under the starlit sky.

Lakes Traveled:   Gneiss Lake, Maraboeuf Lake,