Wednesday, August 08, 2007. Argo, Dark Water Lake, Dark Water River, Brent, William, Conmee. 12.5 miles, six portages.

Awoke to cloudless skies and were on the water by 8:30, headed to the portage into Dark Water Lake (then called Darky), where we would see more pictographs. Dark Water is another beautiful lake with clear water, and has two pictograph sites near the portage from Argo. Again took lots of photos, then worked our way to the Darky River portage, which I had done in 1978, and had no fond memories of. And not much had changed since '78—the footing was still poor, the portage-side vegetation still encroached on canoe space, and the 'teaser lake' mid-way through the portage still made me think the portage was over. It took us half an hour to complete the 950 meter portage. On Brent we stopped for lunch on a small rock island near the portage. One of our Piragis contacts had told us how nice William Lake is, and we planned to camp there before the long portage into Conmee. However, it was early, and we decided to move on into Conmee—not one of our best decisions. The William-to-Conmee portage landing is not obvious—it's through a boulder field at the end of William. Tia's journal reads “I'm not talking about watermelon-sized boulders—these were the size of ottomans, end tables, and living room chairs, and you had to hop from one to another with a canoe on your head or a pack on your back!” Found a nice site on Conmee, set up the dining-fly bathtub, had afternoon snack and coffee, and studied maps for tomorrow's route—we're trying to see as many pictographs as possible and have heard about a couple message caches. The day has been sunny, but got a bit overcast as we set up camp and the temperature is quite comfortable.