Tuesday, July 23, 2019 Queue move day! Up and raring to go before the sun ever peeked its golden face above the tree line, we hit the water at dawn after wolfing down some calories. We had anywhere from six to eight portages to conquer as we began our move toward exiting the Boundary Waters. Our goal today was one of the Pauness Lakes. We had a nice long portage to start the morning so we moved into work mode.
With shoulders burning about three quarters of the way through the first portage, today was going to be a workout. The temperatures were warming quickly and the first beads of sweat rolled off our chins. We made it to Hustler and both agreed it was a lake worth revisiting. Something about those narrow arms in the lake and the tree line captured our imaginations. We took our time crossing Hustler to let our bodies settle into the work we had just finished, and preparing for more to come.
The portage to Ruby Lake was a breeze and the paddle across Ruby took just a few minutes. Before us was another long portage to Lynx Lake. I had to stop half way across with the canoe because my shoulders were screaming and on fire. It was then I realized that my yoke pads were too far apart and the weight of the canoe was pressing directly on my shoulder joints. My shoulders are trash, dislocating when they feel like it on a good day, so I knew to solve the problem, I would have to move the yoke pads in toward my neck. Unfortunately we didn't have any tools so I would spend the rest of this day jostling the canoe back and forth, from left to right to ease that pain. In the end, I made it work and we got to Lynx Lake and took a well deserved rest just off the portage in the sandy waters.

Lynx was a busy lake. There were canoes everywhere and it took a good while to get used to seeing so many other people after the isolation we had experienced over most of this trip. The wind was cooperating today but someone had turned the heat up so the paddle across Lynx went smoothly, if not hotly. We were lucky to be able to slip through the the connector stream between Lynx and Little Shell Lake. Beside being a beautiful spot, we were grateful to not have to unload and load the gear one more time.

Heading over the quick portage to Shell Lake, we knew we had at least one long portage left. Our sweat and stink levels were off the charts and we were in dire need of a dip in the lake. But knowing we still had hard work ahead of us, we set off into the busy waters of Shell Lake, another stunner. I completely get the attraction to making that a destination lake. After a fairly decent length paddle across Shell, we arrived at the last big portage of the day and hopefully what would have been our last portage of the day.
Traveling across the Shell to Lower Pauness portage was an adventure. About half way across the portage, we discovered a beaver pond that had to be paddled across. At first we thought we could walk across, but after getting thigh deep in the water only a few yards out, we loaded up the boats, didn't bother taking the yokes off, and squeezed ourselves in a kneeling position in front of the yoke to pole across.
Finally across the pond, we started our last leg of the portage. We got the boats across and went back for the packs. As we headed back to Lower Pauness, just absolutely drenched in sweat and with 10 days of stink on us, we came across two gentleman who still smelled of soap and cologne. As they came up to us, they had a few questions about our gear and our dogs, and we both said, "Don't breath to deep near us. We reek!" They chuckled and carried on after we wished them a happy journey. And with hunger and exhaustion setting deep in, we finally fully arrived at Lower Pauness Lake. Gichi's face below captures just how fatigued we all were following the day's journey.

There was a really nice site on Lower Pauness but it was already taken, and we passed up the site that was across from the portage. We knew we had it in us to do one more portage so we agreed to revisit the mosquito fest portage between Lower and Upper Pauness. And my god, though the portage was short in length and had virtually little elevation, we were tired. I could feel my legs giving up beneath me. With little life left in us we finished the portage and paddled up the north east shore of Upper Pauness. We found a site halfway up the lake and declared it home for the next two nights.
Flat ground was hard to come by on this site, and with the Lean, finding space big enough was a challenge. We made it work but had to contend with a gregarious ant family and every friend they had on the earth. They were patient with us as we set up the Lean in our exhausted state. The ants finally climbed back in their ant mansion as we ignored them. After a good soak in the lake, a few more sips of whiskey, and quick meal, we were rewarded with a mosquito free last campsite and a brilliant showing from the sunset. The hazy sun mirrored our attention span as this long day finally came to rest.