DAY 8, SEPTEMBER 4, CEDAR TO CARL WILSON; 10.75 miles, 6 portages (1700, 980, 490, 350, 1260, and 340 meters. Yep, over 3 miles of portage in the day's 10.75 miles of travel)

Up again at 6:00 to fog, but promising blue patches sometimes hint at a good day. It's 47 degrees this morning, more like our Quetico mornings. We've settled into a 2-hour coffee, breakfast, break camp, get on the water routine, and are on the foggy lake at 8:00.

As we head back up the lake to our first portage, we hear motors and see two boats appear out of the fog. Three people (father/son/guide?) are dropped off at our portage landing and start up the trail with paddles, fishing gear, and light packs just as we reach the landing. We single-walked the mile+ without a break, caught up with them at Fry Lake, where they had a canoe waiting on them.

Three of the lakes we paddled through today have campsites on them; we didn't know the destination of the fishermen and didn't see them after the Fry to Gull portage landing. At noon we finished the portage into Varley Lake and ate lunch in the campsite at the end of the portage. Just after getting back on the water, we spotted an otter. He “chuffed” at us and came closer to investigate. As he approached, we could hear a guttural rumble, almost a growl, before each “chuff”. What a treat to watch.

It's been sunny and warm since the end of our first portage today, with temps reaching the upper 60s. Our shortest portage of the day, 340 meters, put us in Carl Wilson Lake, where a steady wind was coming directly out of the west. We paddled straight into the wind to the west shore, where we had wind shadow and where four of the lake's campsites are. We checked out all four, and chose the northern-most as home for the night. Set up camp, including the bathtub. Rinsed bodies and clothes, prepped the dessert of peanut butter cheesecake, then noticed the skies getting darker. Decided to set up the dining fly over the kitchen area—wise move, as rain began as I was cooking Pad Thai. Dined under the fly, but the rain stopped in time for clean-up and bear bag hang. A few mosquitoes sent us into the tent early, where we played a couple Farkle sessions, read a couple McManus stories, then fell into the deep sleep of the fully exhausted.