Sunday, August 12, 2007. Kahshahpiwi, Yum Yum, Grey, no-name, Shade, Noon, Summer, Sultry, Silence. 8 portages, 17 miles.

On the water at 8:20 and down the lake to see the pictographs on the southwest leg, then had to turn into the wind to paddle to our portage in the southeast leg. The first portage of the day was the 1230 meter grunt into Yum Yum—the longest of this trip. On a trip across this portage several years ago we found a snorkel sticking out of the bog that's about half-way through—wondered how many winter nights were spent planning that! Both ends of this portage are steep, and the boggy area can be problematic in wet years, but wasn't an issue this visit. Even with our rest break mid-way through the portage, we were through in under 40 minutes. Ate lunch when we portaged into the no-name—the put-in was a smooth stone slab, and there was no portage traffic. The portage from Noon to Summer should have been easy to spot, but a blow-down blocked its landing. Searching the shoreline for the portage, we discovered an abandoned Nalgene, which gave us a three-bottle rotation for treating water--our filter clogged yesterday. Talked with our first folks in a couple days on Shade—they were heavily loaded, and said it took multiple trips across each portage for all the gear. We had remembered lots of campsites on the S Chain, so didn't start looking for a site until after 3:00. Found nothing on Summer or Sultry (not even Sultry's untraveled arm!), but found a sweet site on Silence at about 5:00. Had a wonderful grassy surface, and faced east, so not too hot in the evening. This was our longest day of the trip, but with pack weights down as we draw down our food and fuel stores, it was a rewarding day on the water (and across the portages). But we were dog-tired, and crawled into the sleeping bags at 8:15—no stories, no cards, just sleep.