South Kawishiwi River to Lake 2; 9.75 miles, 9 portages, 220 rods

My portage and rod count for this day might be a little off, as I did manage to skip the first two 15 rod portages by lining my canoe up the rapids. I don’t think I’ve properly lined before, and it would have helped if I had a longer front line. I’m not sure if lining saved me any time or effort, but it was certainly more adventurous.

Once again the day started out with only a few puffy clouds, but they began to multiply and inflate and become ever more menacing in appearance by mid-day. Today’s forecast for storms; 50%.

I did the few little maze-like portages that take you down to Lake One. For the first time, it felt busy. The close by campsites were full with what seemed like really big tents and lawn chairs, and there were lots of canoes out on the water. I paddled on toward Lake Two as some of those puffy, castle-like clouds grew larger and darker and started to produce thunder. The strange thing was that it was very hard to tell which direction they were going. The wind was from the southwest – that was easy to read, but it was not clear if the clouds were moving that way or not. I was keeping an eye on particularly larger thunderhead to my northeast as I got nearer the portage to Lake Two, when the wind shifted 180º. I now was concerned that storm was about to come my way. I looked around, and amazingly the campsite straight east of me was open so I paddled over there in case I needed off the lake. I landed and scouted places to pop up a tarp, and watched the storm cloud. I waited about 20 minutes, and the storm just didn’t seem to be getting any closer. After a few more minutes, I just paddled on toward the portage.

I did the two little portages and paddled out onto Lake Two, with the wind now back from the southwest. More storms looked like they were brewing to the south and west, so I looked ashore and found the two campsites just to the north were open. I took the westerly one and set up for a storm from the lake. An hour later, the wind shifted 180º - AGAIN – and I had to set my bourbon down and raise this side of the tarp and lower that side – AGAIN. Once again, no storm hit – but I did get about 15 minutes of sprinkles.

Morning in Tent

Morning Fog Rising

More Storms on Lake One