Tuesday, August 18, 2020 Another calm and quiet night with a bit cooler temperatures. The big lake was glass calm and a light mist rolled into shore. Today’s goal is to reach a group of island sites near the entryway into the Sea Gull River and I think we got lucky with the weather. As we loaded up, the lake stirred with only ripples and the wind picked up only slightly as we rounded American Point. As we reached the most open part of the lake I thanked the weather gods! I could barely see the other side and is most definitely the largest lake I’ve ever paddled across. We’re in motorboat land though and the hum of their engines was quite jarring at first.

We picked our way through Munker and Long Island (easier said than done) and reached our destination area by late morning. Many sites were taken due to proximity to the boundary line. We paddled to every single site in the vicinity including a few on an island that shouldn’t have existed on our map. We passed up a good site because of the noisy 20-something year old neighbors who didn’t know how to converse at a reasonable level. We figured it would only get worse with the onset of evening (and alcohol). So we retreated to the very first site we looked at. Located on a small island with grassy front porch and “retaining wall” upper level on top of a rock slab.

Immediately after camp was set up, the fishing party set out with me staying behind to explore the island. I walked the rocky shore and probably scared the bejeebies out of a few fisherman as I crashed out of the thick shrubs. Whoops! Light passing rain showers came through and I watched a large group of loons splash and chase each other. I think the fishing party lost more lures than the number of fish they caught. After dinner we went out on a sunset cruise on the now calm and glassy waters. Windswept islands silhouetted the bright orange sky. It was the best sunset of the trip. Another evening campfire, star gazing, loons, and sipping the last of our cocktails. ~Saganaga Lake