DAY NINE: Monday, September 2—our 47th anniversary. Sarah, Side, 3 no-names, Isabella, no-name, a meandering creek, North Bay. 9.7 miles, 6 portages.

Yesterday's wind convinced us to get an early start today, and we were on the water at 8:00 with wet gear and overcast skies. We were at the portage out of Sarah in about an hour, but picked the wrong trail out of the lake. After a couple hundred yards we remembered making the same mistake a few years ago and corrected our error. Our marked-up map now has a clear note ("look for the sandy beach!") about this portage!

The T-shaped portage trail between Side and the no-names toward Isabella gives paddlers the option between beaver bog muck or stairmaster exercise—we chose the stairmaster route, and at the portage end we met two paddlers. We had seen only two other people since the afternoon of Day One, almost eight full days before! That's easily our best “ain't seen a soul” record in Quetico's interior. Had lunch on Isabella, and between Isabella and North Bay we followed a meandering creek and crossed six beaver dams.

North Bay looked wonderful—calm water and sunshine. We paddled to a nice campsite on an island near the South Lake inlet, set up camp, and had baths in the sun. The site had a great cooking rock platform that allowed a roomy dining fly setup. For our anniversary dinner, Restaurante du North Bay served up appetizers of hummus on zucchini chips, an entree of shrimp in veggie couscous, and a fruit cobbler dessert. The island's squirrels are cutting and eating pine cones—don't sit under the white pines! Our gear dried nicely, but the sun has disappeared and the wind has picked up since 6:00 pm.