Tuesday, July 20

We planned an early start to hopefully avoid the wind, but the wind blew all night, so we didn't rush out of camp. Wind shifted to the NE and we awoke to solid cloud cover. We felt a couple sprinkles, but it never amounted to much. Big breakfast of eggs, hashbrowns, bacon, cheese, and vegetables. Hot coffee for Stew. He has mostly been doing cold brew coffee because we have had no-cook breakfasts, so he enjoyed savoring a hot cup o' joe.

We left around 8am and reached Prairie Portage in under an hour. It was confusing because of a very prominent sign saying AREA CLOSED at the start of the 28 rod portage canoeists use on the Canadian side. We finally decided the sign was meant for the fee box aspect of entering Quetico proper. So we went ahead and portaged across. My son said they had the same confusion when they went through that area and his counselor finally decided they should be cautious and do the portage on the American side. But when they got to it, some motorboat folks said, "It is a lot easier to do the short portage, that is what all the canoeists do." So they paddled back over and did the 28 rod one.

Stew mentioned that it would be nice to start single portaging, so I started contemplating how I could pull that off as we paddled through Sucker and Birch Lakes. After we passed through the narrows between these 2 lakes, we spotted something fairly large swimming from an island to the main shore. A moose? No, its head was too low in the water. Then I got a clear view of its nose. A young bear! We watched it swim the whole way and as it clambered onto shore in a cedar grove it bleated for its momma. We could hear them crashing through the woods but couldn't see them.

As we passed the short portage coming in from Sucker Lake, we started to see a LOT of canoes. The wind was still in our face. We cranked into high gear and flew past a group of scouts. They were a pretty novice group with one tired young man attempting to paddle on his left side with his right elbow resting on his knee. The mom in me wanted to say, "Sit up straight young man! If you engage your core muscles, paddling will be much easier." But I managed to bite my tongue.

We chatted with their guide briefly after he commented on our mid-80s Mad River canoe. Then Stew asked the boys if they had seen any wildlife yet. They murmured no and Stew said, "Well look up." There was a huge bald eagle perched right overhead.

As we reached the first portage, we were relieved to see the group directly ahead of us was extremely efficient at portaging. They disappeared with their gear all in one trip. I decided to strap the daypack to the top of Big Blue along with the PFDs. Then I carried Big Blue on my back and Baby Blue on my front along with the 2 paddles. Worked well, though too heavy for portages over 1/2 mile. It worked well enough to use that method the rest of the day. Given the heavy traffic jams at the portages, I was very glad we were able to single portage! When I reached the end of the portage dumping us into Knife Lake, I came over the final rise to a sea of canoes, people, and packs. I couldn't even spot Stew at first. Relieved to see him at last (3 rows out!), I quickly waded to him, dumped the packs and we took off ASAP. He had counted more than 10 canoes there, not including us.

Given the crowds, we decided to just paddle into the bay to the right and take the first open campsite we found. I guess people don't like to paddle into bays because the first site was empty. Stew wanted to fish, so we unloaded our packs and went out fishing before setting up camp. Canoe after canoe just kept paddling past in both directions, but the bay stayed pretty quiet. We walked the portage to Portage Lake just to take a peek and we spotted a tiny little baby painted turtle swimming in the shallows. So cute!

Back at the campsite, we set up. This is an odd little campsite. Two tent sites are close to the fire grate area, but rocky and very exposed to the sun. However, a path leading along the shore further into the bay revealed a lovely tent site sheltered among the pines and overlooking the lake. The biggest issue with this campsite is the latrine location. Wow! It is a hike. Over hill, over dale, around and around. I had to pee so bad, I finally gave up and took a squat off to the side of the trail before continuing my exploration to finally find it. Stew heard me laughing as I walked back, counting how many steps to get back. It was so ludicrous. From the edge of the main clearing to the latrine is 164 steps! Plus add another 100 steps back to our tent site and bathroom trips required serious advance planning!

Stew decided to portage the canoe over to Portage Lake and do some fishing while I chilled around camp. Around 5pm, a group paddled up looking for a site. I mentioned the site deeper in the bay was open, but they decided to keep paddling up Knife. A bit later, another pair of people paddled up and decided to take the other site in the bay. Even later, a bigger group stopped by trying to find a site so I told them the 2 campsites over on Portage Lake were open and the portage was short/easy. Stew saw them when they arrived and they were appreciative we had given them that intel. Stew caught a nice sized bass so we shifted dinner plans to have the fish along with some potato and bacon soup. We don't filet our fish, just toss it in a pan with skin on and a tiny touch of oil. Easy clean up.

Knife is a beautiful lake. The geology of the slate rock layers turned on their side is stunning...though rough walking at times. The water is crystal clear, a beautiful blue-green hue more reminiscent of glacial lakes than BWCA lakes. The birch and poplar trees are already turning yellow and losing leaves due to the drought so there is a fall like feel when it cools off at night.
Distance: 11.6 miles Portages: 283 rods plus Stew's trip to Portage and back Time: 8:05-12:15 including brief lunch stop
~Basswood Lake, Sucker Lake, Birch Lake, Carp Lake, Melon Lake, Seed Lake, Knife Lake