Wednesday, August 01, 2018 We awoke early, packed up, had breakfast, and were just about to put the canoe in the water when it began to rain again. Having already packed everything up, we huddled under a group of White Pine to wait out the rain. It was one of those moments that puts everything into perspective. Standing there, cold and wet, praying for the rain to stop, for hours. Just the silence and tranquility of the woods, and the scent of wet pine.

The rain stopped eventually, but it must have been after noon by that point. Again, it was difficult to tell as it remained overcast. We went down the Isabella River, which was gorgeous, and stopped at the end to eat. We had macaroni in a cardboard box. Mistake. The cardboard was soaked from the night before, ad the noodles had taken on a weird, almost boiled look.

After dinner, we portaged from Isabella River into Bald Eagle Lake. It was a large lake, and windy, but the wind was to our backs. We paused for a brief while at a site there to wait out a bought of rain, and considered spending the night, but ended up continuing onto Gabbro Lake. It was sort of difficult to find how to get there, and had an audience when we eventually did.

It was a little, I don’t quite know how to put it, a little waterfall maybe. We had to exit to canoe and carry it across about 15 feet or rock, the place it in the other side. That went well, I got back in the front, the my Father went to push off the rock to get us clear of the rapid water, but he slipped. He fell into the canoe, and snapped the back off his seat. It was still usable, and he was uninjured, save for a small cut on his knee, so we were rather lucky not to tip.

Anyways, there we 4 men in kayaks watching, and they offered us a spot at their site after informing us that Gabbro was crowded. We thanked them, everyone you meet in the Boundary Waters is so nice, and continued up the Lake. It was windy and cold, sputtering rain, but we did eventually find an unoccupied site. We had supper and hit the tent early.