Day 4, Friday August 9

As has become our habit, Tony and I got up with the light, lounged over the hot drink of choice, and made breakfast while the others stirred in their tents. Mark starts his day with bringing Judy coffee in tent. What a guy. . .Today’s breakfast was sausage and cheesy hash browns followed by the packing up of boats and an immediate portage from Bell into “small lake” and then Fran. Ryan and Zach launched first without a map and headed with vigor to the longer, more challenging portage to Blackstone Lake. They eventually realized their mistake and paddled back since no one seemed interested in joining them. We were happy we had pre-established a policy of not heading across portages until all parties were at the take out. Reunited we headed across the portage into “small” lake and found a fun paddle through to Fran Lake avoiding another portage.

We caught a few fish along Fran Lake (I caught a bass and 2 pike) and then had lunch at the portage from Slate into Saganons. Zach and Ryan wanted to try the “river walk” instead of the short walkover portage so I went with them thinking someone should supervise the offspring (and protect the boats.) Well, there were lots of rocks and down logs but by wading with packs and lifting boats over logs and beaver dams “Lewis and Clark” finally made it. I definitely think the carry over would have been easier, but it seemed it was “fun” and no one even broke their ankle or cracked a boat. (Phew!) Meanwhile back at the portage Mark, Judy, Sammy, and Tony utilized the time well by picking ripe plump blueberries for a surprise treat later. Given all the excitement, we got turned around a bit heading out onto Saganons but it didn’t take us long to get back on track and we made a long windy paddle across the end of Saganons to “Deadman’s Portage.” It was my day for the paddling the single boat so I got some extra exercise. Unlike the ominous name the portage itself was very straight forward with the exception of one down tree across the trail but teamwork prevailed. Zach and Ryan have taken to grabbing two portage packs each before returning to grab boats making everything efficient and easier on the rest of us. I am encouraging this type of behavior especially given my whiny back issue. We found an open island camp just after the portage with nice views up the lake to the north. Unfortunately some previous party had trashed the place, even leaving a plastic half a gallon of oil tossed in the fire pit. We cleaned up as best we could wondering out loud what makes people think that defiling the backcountry is OK? We had a dinner of pesto pasta and Judy’s fresh picked blueberry cheese cake for dinner. Yumbolicious! We went to bed with everyone excited about experiencing the Falls Chain tomorrow!