4 lakes, 5 portages

Spartan1 was up first today and he saw a large turtle digging in the dirt on the landing. I didn't get out of the tent soon enough to see it.

We had a warming breakfast of oatmeal pancakes with chopped pecans, scrambled eggs, coffee, hot chocolate, and the usual quart of TANG. The temperature of 54 degrees didn't seem that cold, but I was stiff and sore. I seemed to have pulled a muscle in my right leg, so the much-dreaded portage to Muskeg Lake sounded even less pleasant after a night of rain.

This portage IS long and arduous (185 rods). My dear husband helped me carry my second pack part of the way until I regained my wind and took over again.

There are two short portages into Long Island Lake, one muddy and the other rocky. Long Island is a busier lake and we saw several canoes, including a Forest Service one where a couple seemed to be checking a campsite. We stopped at a rock for lunch. The weather was becoming cloudy again.

The next 5-rod portage was muddy, and the one into Gordon Lake (18 rods) was easy. We spoke with some fishermen in a party of three canoes at the portage. And I did take a few photos along the way this time.

There is a rock on Gordon Lake that I have always called the "Face Rock". [Also photographed on a trip in 2002 and again in 2012, when David Knudson said it looked like a bunny to him. It will always be the "Face Rock" to me.]

We made camp at 2:30 at the northern site on Gordon Lake in bright sunshine. It felt good to get everything dried out again! The vegetation was lovely here: pink roses and an abundance of wild columbine. Clouds began to blow in again and we heard the rumble of far-distant thunder. There was a nice lake view from the campsite and we could see three canoes of fishermen in the area.

After a brief thunderstorm, the sun came out again and it was windy. More storms blew in as we were cleaning up from supper, so it was back to the tent early, reading and dozing. The mosquitoes are bothersome and can be heard buzzing even in the tent.

We had a steady rain all night.