Today was the most trying day of the trip. We had single portaged a couple times, but did not on the Long Portage. Doubling back on this portage made for a six mile walk! We thoroughly enjoyed paddling from Mountain to Watap to Rove lakes, and the Long Portage was long- but then it was done- and it was an accomplishment for our group.

The thing that took the wind out of our sails was passing campsite after campsite on Rose Lake that was occupied. Such a beaituful lake, maybe my favorite in terms of scenery, and again, it had been over twenty years since I was last in this part of the BWCA and was looking forward to staying here.

With the main lake full, and the sun starting to get low, we had the choice to do the stairway portage into Duncan or keep moving towards South. We decided to continue towards South and were lucky enough to get the campsite at the Rat Lake portage. I had stayed here years ago and remembered it being mosquito infested and busy with through paddlers portaging through. Lucky for us there were no groups (they must have already all arrived!) and no bugs. We made camp and looked forward to another day off tomorrow. ~Mountain Lake, Watap Lake, Rove Lake, Rose Lake