We woke, ate breakfast, repacked our bags, and made our way to the entry point on Sawbill. I stopped by the outfitter to drop off my car keys for them to hold. It was a beautiful day and the water was calm. We paddled over to the portage from Sawbill to Alton. For most of the portages, I carried the gear pack, Ryan carried the food pack and would go back for the canoe. You know you are getting old when the next generation voluntarily starts doing the extra work.

We saw one group heading out of Alton. As we paddled south toward the portage to Beth Lake, I noticed that the campsites on the west shore of Alton were occupied. The portage to Beth has a bit of an incline out of Alton. We met a group of six women portaging out after staying on Beth.

We paddled across Beth to the portage to Grace Lake. It looked like half the campsites on Beth were occupied. The portage to Grace is a long portage at 287 rods (4,736 feet). I was told that this portage is where people start to thin out. On the Grace side of the portage, we met a family coming from Pheobe. It was a mother, father, and a preteen girl. They had just left the site we were targeting on Pheobe and said the lake was empty. They pointed out some areas of concern on the Pheobe River on our map.

We did not see any occupied campsites on the paddle across Grace. After checking in a couple of the wrong bays, we found the short portage to the Pheobe River. In addition to the marked portages along the river, there was a boulder field to contend with. We were able to line the canoe through the field without removing the packs from the canoe.

At the end of one of the portages, we noticed a man-made structure under the water. It was perfectly square set of logs filled with rocks.

The Pheobe River opened into Pheobe Lake, and we targeted the campsite on the north shore of the lake. This site was nearest to the river. The landing for the site was not obvious and we paddled past it. It is basically just a path up a short incline to the campsite. The campsite sits back among the trees and is not visible from the lake.

The site is a big site with plenty of space for tents. The downsides are the landing and the lack of views of the lake. We filtered water and broke out the lunch of foil packed barbecue beef with dehydrated cheese and dehydrated Pico de Gallo. We were both getting a little hangry. Once we ate, we felt much better and set up camp. We spent the afternoon reading and talking.

We heard one other group on the lake, but we could not see them. I believe they were on one of the island campsites on the southern portion of the lake. We saw a group of two canoes come into the lake from the western portion of the Pheobe River. They paddled south toward the campsites on the south end of the lake.

Dinner was "Thanksgiving feast". It was stuffing, instant mashed potatoes, instant gravy and foil packed chicken. Ryan cut some wood and started a fire. The bugs came out around dusk, and we went to bed.

We traveled about 7.5 miles today.