Thursday, July 18, 2013 We had heavy rains during the night. Had to pack up the tents and other gear wet. The morning discussion mostly focused on the portages we were facing that day. A 285 rod portage from Grace Lake to Beth Lake and another 140 rod portage from Beth Lake to Alton Lake. The plan was to find a camp site on Alton and have an easy last day. The 285 rod portage tested all of us. We planned to portage half way, lay down our gear and go back for the second load. I drank lots of water during and after that portage. I would need to pump some more during our lunch break. We stopped on Beth Lake for lunch and began the discussion. Should we go with the original plan and stop in Alton Lake, push on and camp at the Outfitter and get an early start to get home. Even the suggestion came up to push to the end, take a shower and find a hotel somewhere near Duluth. Just as we were about to push off it began to rain. One of the hardest storms I have ever been in. My rain gear was in my pack. I just stood behind a tree with my head down into the wind. My Tilley hat did a great job in the rain but I was soaked. During the middle of the storm the decision was push to the end and find a hotel. Had about 3” of rain in our canoes after the 30 storm. Glad it didn’t last much longer. Worrying about another storm rolling in we pushed hard across Beth Lake to our last long portage, 140 rods. As we were pulling into the portage take out, a family on a day trip was sitting there. There canoes were on the Alton side of the portage. We must have looked like group of drowned rats. The adults each grabbed a pack and carried them over to Alton. Of course they didn’t take mine, it was the heaviest pack. Alton was large open water lake, lots of camp sites but what we could tell most were filled already. Just before we reached the last portage our canoe hit an underwater rock and we were stuck. I couldn’t believe that we were going for a swim so close to the end. Lucky we freed ourselves and onto the take out point. The portage to Sawbill Lake was a short 25 rod trip. We were through the portage and at the take out point in no time.
Hot shower and on the road home. All our soaked gear was just tossed in the van and we were on our way. We stopped in a small town north of Duluth to eat. Phoebe Lake, Grace Lake, Beth Lake, Alton Lake, Sawbill Lake