Day 1- 2 July 4 is not the ideal day to depart. From experience, fireworks the night before can be annoying. But we had actually had changed our permit last minute due to the heat wave. We weren’t going to drive 16 hours to bake in the heat so we were stuck with leaving on the 4th. Originally , we had Mudro entry point on July 2 but we changed to Poplar Lake because it looked a lot cooler than Mudro. Our paddle across Poplar was uneventful. Lots of day trippers out and about. Had to wait at the portage for a group to leave. Easy portage to Lizz Swamp. Easy portage to Caribou. But it was hot. So we stayed at site directly across from the portage to Horseshoe Lake. We noticed the pattern of people exiting and arriving between 11-2. The campsite wasn’t buggy during the day. We hung out in the woods for shade! The rocks were really hot and felt great! We did have a mishap with our water filter. Somehow, a plastic ring fell off and we couldn't find it so we were creating a solution to the leaking waterbag and we accidentally cut our water bag!! UGGG. But we had duct tape and the problem was solved. It was really hot so we took it easy and stayed at this site for 2 nights.