Up at 6am after spending the night in the bunkhouse provided by our outfitter: Jordan's Canoe Outfitting, Ely, MN. Mark Bland is the owner and he does an excellent job of getting things ready and although this is only my second trip, I'm planning a third using Mark again.

Breakfast at 7am, pancakes and sausage. Load up and head to the EP.

We entered on Island River, knowing we would paddle through the area of the Pagami Creek fire, but we were interested in seeing the burned area and it's regrowth.

The day was very sunny and hot, we briefly considered a trip south on the Island River to view some pictographs, but I was overruled by the kids, they just wanted to get going and didn't want to backtrack right away.

We didn't paddle too far the first day. The campsite was just past Rice Lake, but on the Isabella River, this was the first campsite along our route that was not closed due to the Pagami Creek fire. The site would have been fine, except there was NO shade and it was a hot sunny day. By sunset a giant boulder was throwing some shade on our tents. The tent pad was grassy, not much use I'm guessing, and had enough room for two three-man dome tents.

The night was hot, but our New York Strip steaks were great cooked on the fire grates.

The night was very still and hot. Sleeping was not great that first night. The bugs were tolerable, but got worse as it got dark.