Saturday, August 25, 2018 : We were up by 6:30 and in the canoe by 7:30. As we carried all our gear down to the canoe and water we both smelled a horrible smell. We both thought it was for sure some animal scat and possibly bear scat. As we loaded stuff in the canoe we both looked at the same time for where our dog was and here she came from the side of the camp and as she approached she reeked! She had rolled in the scat that we smelled. Since she sits in the canoe by Dan we had to try and get that smell off of her. So she got thrown in the lake. That helped but she looked at us and wondered what she had done. She didn’t mind the smell. Since we were starting so early we just did granola bar an trail mix, as we left Little Caribou it was misty. We had packed our food bag so we could do lunch on one of the lakes. The portage into Caribou was a short 24 rods. We saw some eagles on Caribou but I didn’t get any pictures. Most of the campsites were taken and we saw a couple of other canoes headed toward Little Caribou. We reached one side of Caribou by 9:00 a.m. and headed to the portage to Deer lake. The Deer lake campsite is right there at the portage into Deer Lake. It had a sandy beach. The portage leaving Caribou into Deer Lake was horrible it was rocky and a lot of tree roots everywhere and everything was wet. It made it slippery and hard to walk and I have no idea how my husband kept upright with the canoe on his head. We decided to keep going and headed to Moon Lake. There was one canoe on Moon lake and one couple was fishing there. There where three campsites and two had campers. We ate our lunch on that lake and debated about taking the last campsite and staying until Sunday or go ahead and head out. It took us a little to find the portage and head into East Bear Skin. What a long paddle. We couldn’t believe the portage into East Bear skin from Moon was 183 rods. It seemed shorter. There was a very steep climb up and even a very steep flight of stairs. We got misted on a few times, but the sun started shining when we left Caribou Lake. I was down to wearing my shorts and tank top. We paddled for what seemed to be forever. We arrived at East Bear Skin Portage at 2:30. We looked around East Bearskin campground to see if we could get a camping spot, but we decided to try for the Bunk House at Rockwood so we could have showers. We got the bunkhouse and wonderful showers for us and the dog. We were able to lay our gear out so it could start to dry. We then headed to Trails End Restaurant for a wonderful meal and great reminiscing. We did a little drive on Gunflint Trail before headed back to Rockwood. We talked over our trip and choices we made. I really do enjoy the portages and just the beauty of the paths and all the cool things we see between the lakes. It is always a new adventure. We were Thankful for a good trip and safety. Felt very successful that we did that huge portage between Canoe and Pine. We survived.

A couple of notes for next time: 1) take a watch…. we used the camera in military time to figure out what time it was, one of us usually wears a watch, I like to write down what time we left and how long it took us to get to different portages. 2) take a couple of ink pens…. the pen wouldn’t write most of the time, so therefore lots of stuff doesn't get written down and it gets forgotten 3) we would rather not do a loop next time, we spend more time packing and moving then enjoying the trip, it is very stressful to worry if we will get a camping spot or not. While we did enjoy the Lakes we prefer going to a lake and setting up camp and doing day trips…….