Saturday, September 01, 2018: McIntyre, Cecil, NoName, Tuck, Sarah, Side, 2 NoNames 11 miles, 8 official portages, 2 portages we shouldn't have taken, and 3 beaver dams

Another gray morning over a misty lake, but nice paddling temperature. We had considered a route through Tuck and Kett to Ranger Bay, but decided the long portages at the end of the day plus the time on the bigger water (with more people) would not be as fun as the route we took. The portage into Tuck is as beautiful as any in the Park, we think, and Tia dubbed it “Tumbling Waters Portage”. By the time we reached Sarah, the sky was bright blue and the wind was quite manageable. We lunched on Sarah, then portaged into Side. Actually, we first portaged into a beaver bog north of the 'real' portage, then portaged back to Sarah and regrouped to find the correct path. Between Sarah and Side we met our second party in six days—a party of six in three canoes on a fishing adventure. Because we had walked the leg and right arm of the T-shaped portage at the bottom of Side Lake last year, we decided to explore a bit and walk both arms of the T into a no-name puddle, then into a no-name lake northwest of Isabella. The left arm of the T-shaped portage is really nice—mostly flat with great footing and a nice sandy put-in at the puddle end. Looking for the portage out of the tiny lake, Tia spotted a moose cow and calf in a boggy area, netting us the best moose photos we've ever taken. We were careful not to spook them, then as we paddled away, a check of the map showed that we were supposed to go through the bog to access the next portage! Tia started singing as we slowly paddled back to the bog area, and when we could again see the bog, the moose were gone. The portage into the next no-name countered the flat, easy walk across the arms of the T portage—the portage was simple enough, but dumped us into a beaver-dammed stream whose dams had failed. The remaining water would not float the canoe with us in it, so we walked the muskeg beside the stream and worked our way to open water. At 4:00 pm we found a campsite near the portage into Isabella and set up camp, rinsed the beaver muck from our clothes, and took baths before a nice dinner of chicken & rice.