4 lakes, 2 portages

This day was probably the first day of summer, and of course was also Father's Day. It had cooled off very quickly the night before with the clear skies, and was 39 degrees at 6 AM. BRRR!

I arose first and hurried to the lookout point, but there were no moose on the beach. So I crawled back into the bag with cold feet and soon persuaded Neil to get up and build a fire. The four ducks were a visible and audible presence during breakfast.

We got a late start (10:00) and began the "altered" version of the trip by portaging back through Unload Lake to Gordon. I again enjoyed the big ferns, violets, white cliff-like rock, huge trees, and the great "resting chair" along the portage (two rocks), along with my portaging companion, a large yellow butterfly. The paddle through Gordon was gorgeous, calm water, no people, both campsites were vacant. The portage to Cherokee is very short (15 rods). At the end of the portage we met three men in a canoe, dragging "supper--a Northern!" behind.

We stopped at the first campsite on Cherokee and had our lunch in a warm sun. ["Warm" being relative, as we didn't remove our heavy wool shirts until the last day of this trip.] This is a very well-used site, with the world's longest biffy trail. There were thimbleberry plants blooming--such a pretty white flower!

The paddle down Cherokee was lovely; beautiful sun and calm water. We explored a couple of bays and saw the portage to Ranger Lake. This really tempted me, but our maps showed no campsite and with the traffic anticipated to be heavy on Cherokee, we wanted to find a good site early.

The southernmost site on Cherokee Lake was our home for this evening, and we made camp in breezy sun, 64 degrees, a few light clouds. This is a heavily used site, with lots of dead and down wood.

There are several levels: one for the fire, another for the tent, and the biffy is very high, overlooking the entire site from a spot that seems almost uncomfortably open. This is the first time I have ever photographed a site while sitting on the "ranger box".

There are long-needled pine seedlings recently planted here, so the Forest Service must realize that the site is getting over-used. I saw yellow swallowtail butterflies, also a smaller yellow one, a brown and orange variety [Comma?] and the white admiral ones mentioned earlier. In spring there are definitely more butterflies, and the wildflowers are spectacular!

I spent much of this afternoon and evening on a huge rock outcropping over the water. Actually there were two wonderful ones, so we posed across the little bay and photographed each other. Beautiful sites for thinking, for writing in the journal, for watching the water. The rocks were warm, the view great, a few canoes came by and we had neighbors camped at two visible sites. [This afternoon was the beginning of my love for Cherokee, a place we have returned to in 2002 and 2012. My very special location in the BWCA, my favorite.]

Some black and white birds visited us briefly, and I noticed three whittlings someone had left in a stump by the fire area. [One is a knife, making me wonder if the whittler was going for a "knife, fork and spoon" set, but I can only guess.]

I decided to stay up to photograph the sunset, but it was really disappointing. Went to bed at 10:20, 42 degrees, clouds blowing in.