Fall seemed to arrive overnight. This morning it was 50 degrees F and the sky is uniformly gray—our down layers felt especially nice as we fixed coffee and breakfast. We were on the smooth water around 8:40, and paralleled the old Canadian National Railway east down today's chain of lakes. Today's lakes appear less traveled than our Days 1-5 loop.

Today's travel distance of 13 miles is typical of our Quetico trips, yet we're again on our destination lake by noon. When listing destination lakes during permit application, Algonquin's computer system told me that today's distance was long—did I really want to paddle that far?! Same for most days on the second half of our trip. I'm happy that I ignored their warnings.

The wind had picked up as we got to Little Cauchon, so we stopped for lunch at the first campsite. While the temperature had risen to 60, the wind made it feel cooler and we added layers during the lunch stop. The site was what we'd rate as a “desperation site” between the lake and a cliff, so we decided to move on after lunch. Studying our Chrismar Algonquin 2 maps (love us some Chrismar maps!) we discovered that the park has two 'grades' of portage trail. Our Day 8 destination lake can be reached via a 6-portage route or a 3-portage route; all the portages of the shorter route are listed as “low maintenance” and show some steep climbs, so we wanted to check out a low-maintenance trail. About halfway down Little Cauchon the map showed a couple of low-maintenance trails; as we approached them we saw a large log cottage and several outbuildings between the portage landings. We left the canoe and gear at the Windermere Lake portage landing and walked ~150 meters up the trail. We were pleased to find that while it's steep, it's nicely maintained. Maybe we'll use the 3-portage option into Carl Wilson Lake on Day 8...

We returned to the landing, launched the canoe, paddled toward the east end of the lake, and selected the south-facing site as home for the night. The wind had picked up and the water was getting choppy, so we were happy to get a roomy site that may have morning sun tomorrow. We get into warm, dry clothes and set up camp. The site backs up to the rail corridor, and several rail-related artifacts are on a stump in the site. We walk along the rail corridor some with the camera.

Today is our 49th anniversary—special dinner of zucchini chips with hummus, shrimp with garlic shells and spinach, and key lime cheesecake for dessert. Even had a small campfire, a rarity for us.