We were up around our usual time and started to break down camp to get a start on the day. I really enjoyed this site! Today’s goal was to get a site close to our exit point of Latourells. So we left around our usual time of 8:30am and went straight down Birch Lake to the portage to Sucker Lake. This was to be our last portage on the trip! Sometime over the last couple of days, I believe it was the night we stayed on Portage Lake, the wind switched from the north to west south west. And once again we were back to fighting the wind. As we got through the portage and caught a glimpse of Sucker Lake, white caps once again greeted us. Oh well, nothing we haven’t already done before. Bow into the waves and go!! It really wasn’t too bad as we battled across the open water towards the sheltered water of the opposite shore. There is really not much to tell about today’s travel as it was all paddling however we did pass some pretty nice campsites, at least they looked nice. But we wanted to get closer to make our final day easier. We ended up paddling through Sucker and onto Newfound Lake and took one of the campsites in the bay on the northern side of the lake. We arrived again before noon. I am starting to like these shorter days!!!

The campsite # 1311. This site has probably one of the easiest landings of any campsite in the BWCA. Shallow and an easy transition onto land. The site itself is on a slight incline with several flat tent pads and plenty of trees for hammocks. Once you get off the back of the site the landscape climbs at a pretty good clip with plenty of options for bear hang trees. The latrine was a way off up the hill in a little opening with lots of wildflowers that was pretty peaceful and warm if you visited during the time of day when the sun warmed the seat for you.

Once camp was set up, we had lunch and as the food was being pulled out Sara innocently asked if anyone wanted a cliff bar. What ensued was a good laugh as we estimated that Sara and Gerardo brought enough food for another 3-4 days and were carrying around all that extra weight. So we discussed how to meal plan for a wilderness trip so next time we would be lighter and more efficient. Although we were all thankful for the 3-ply toilet paper that Sara brought with and shared generously. That is a luxury item that may take up some space but is light and totally worth it! You don’t know what you don’t know until you know it. Every experience in life teaches us something to make us better educated on that topic.

We were also planning to have a fish fry later that evening so we were planning a concentrated effort at catching some fish. The only problem is all our leeches were gone at this point in the trip and I never really have had much success with artificial lures, in the BWCA or anywhere really. I believe we started fishing around 4:30pm, Zach and I were in one canoe and Nate and Gerardo were in the other. We fished for about 2 hrs and caught a bunch of smaller yet keeper sized smallmouth and northerns but with no way to communicate we ended up releasing all the fish because we didn’t think we had enough for a fish fry. Nate also lost a large Smallmouth at the canoe. Well…. It turned out that if everyone kept their keepers we would have had enough. Back to camp for more freeze-dried food and a campfire before turning in for the night.

Lakes: Birch, Sucker, Newfound Distance traveled: 5 miles