Monday, July 26

Sunrise on Kivaniva Lake
What a surreal, zen day. We slept with the fly off the tent. Stew woke me just after 11pm to see the beautiful, orange moon. Beaver was slapping its tail all night. Then I woke just before the sun started to rise through the trees. Classic mist on the water morning with perfect calm.Raspberry-vanilla oatmeal for breakfast.

Portaged easily into the Kawishiwi River. It was so calm and quiet that it felt strange to speak except an occasional whisper. We just padded and paddled as quietly as possible. This area is pretty...pool, narrow rocky passage, repeat again and again. Didn't see any people until well after the 2nd portage. The campsites were all open.

Joe Pye Weed
At the Fishdance Lake end of the 18 rod portage, we found someone's disposable camera sitting on a rock. I'll try to find the owner through bwca.com. We saw a group of 3 gray jays (aka Canada jays, whiskey jacks). I hadn't seen any of them for awhile. Then we saw a flicker. In a narrow spot near the pictos, both sides of the lake were absolutely teeming with birds. In addition, 2 red squirrels were racing pell-mell through the bushes and down to the shore until one declared victory by leaping onto a driftwood log. Then it ran up the trunk of the log and leapt at a bird perched on a branch. The bird flew off in a huff.

We stopped for lunch at the site just across from the pictographs. Old feel to that site. Lounged around for awhile just absorbing the spirits of the forest, but then Stew started to feel too spooked and we headed toward the portages to Alice. We made quick work of the 2 portages and then met a couple fellows leaving the 2nd site on Alice. They gave us a scouting report of what was open. We decided to take advantage of the calm weather to cross to the north side. Stew trolled all the way across and caught one fish that wasn't big enough to keep.

We claimed the site on the NW tip of the northern island (#1174). Swam, then napped for an hour. This site has very interesting rock formations and colorful lichen. Curry rice for dinner and chocolate pudding for dessert. Thinking about Joey a lot tonight and wondering how his trip is going.

Distance: 12.5 miles Portages: 210 rods Time: 5.5 hours including an hour for the pictos and lunch

~Kivaniva Lake, River Lake, Fishdance Lake, Alice Lake