My original plans were to head South towards Kawishiwi, but for some reason when I was out there I decided against it. It might have had something to do with the lack of seclusion on those lakes, and I knew heading North towards Boulder would be a preferable route for me.

Started the portage out of Malberg around 8:30 a.m., a little later than I would have liked. My body still felt asleep as I finished up the 67 rods and started back into the Kawishiwi. Another 30 rods and 60 rods and I was in Beaver. It took me a minute to find the portage from Beaver into Adams, I didn't realize it was right in front of me! Those cliffs were deceiving. 90 rods into Adams goes quickly, the portage is really cool, a lot of big boulders forming weird "caves" throughout it.

I was feeling pretty tired as I started the paddle across Adams, I'd done ~250 rods that day, so I decided to stop for lunch on the Adams island site. Rehydrated and got back on the water around 12:30. Checked the map and saw that I had two short portages to get from Adams to Boulder. Should be easy enough I figured. Couldn't have been more wrong.

After struggling to find the first portage, I realized I'd have to take a small stream (5-10 ft. wide) before I found a portage. I ditched the 'yak paddle for the single blade since it was wider than the stream at points. After beaching myself multiple times on lilly pads, dragging over a few dams, I came to the first portage. At this point, I was exhausted. The first time I went to throw the canoe up I completely dropped it, it was a good thing I was almost done for the day.

An hour after entering the stream on Adams I found myself on Boulder. I was exhausted, dehydrated, muddy, and ready for a nap. The island site(site #980) was open and I gladly took it around 2 p.m. Downed over 3 liters of water, set up camp, relaxed in the hammock, made dinner and went to bed early.

Day 8 route.

Dam on the route from Adams to Boulder.