Day 1 of 5
Friday, July 02, 2021 The Spider and Bird site. The birds woke us up early, about 4:30. A series of different kinds of birds came through with different songs the last were crows. Dan got out of the tent and a bald eagle took off from the tree next to the tent. We started noticing there were an assortment of different spiders everywhere. One even formed an egg case on our water filter. There was a lot of evidence of borers and it looked like someone had been through taking out diseased trees. That may have attracted both the birds and the spiders. There's also what looks like a lot of old ice fishing equipment hanging in trees around camp. An auger, spoon, bait bucket. It looks like it has been used as an ice fishing winter camp. There's a winter trail that comes into Thomas nearby. [paragraph break] We got up and made pancakes and lil smokies, Coffee/ tea then cleaned up and decided to take a day trip to Kiana to see if it was worth moving there. We took hung up the food bags, packed our personal bags and fishing gear and took the 25 R portage to Kiana. We couldn't find the closest campsite. We paddled across to the find the other site. We were fishing along the shore and finally saw the opening to the site. We got out and looked around. It barely has an opening to the lake and there are no sitting logs. It's very enclosed by bushes and only has one potential tent pad a little way from the firegrate. I can see it being ok if it is cold and windy and you have chairs. Otherwise, I'd pass. We fished back to the portage and we think we saw the opening to the other site but decided not to try to paddle back to it since it didn't have good lake access either. Our little misfortune the day before may have saved us a lot of grief. We went back to Thomas and fished near the portage and on the way back to camp. No luck. It was still hot and sunny. It's a really pretty little lake and is supposed to have a lot of big pike, but no walleye. It would have been a good lake if we felt more crowded. We got back and had PB& J sandwiches. Did camp chores and took showers to cool off. Had chicken tacos with FD chicken, rehydrated charro beans and spanish rice for dinner. The chicken was ok, not the best application. Biscotti for dessert. Too hot for cocoa or to enjoy a fire. Got bear bags up. and went to bed after dark. Some mosquitoes, but not too bad. [paragraph break] Thomas 31 R Kiana 31R Thomas. 1.7 miles total 1.4 miles paddling, .3 miles portaging.
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Day 3 of 5
Saturday, August 29, 2009
Temperatures dipped low overnight. I gave Movie Mike my 25 degree bag and bundled up to spend the night in my old bag. It was a bit chilly in the hours before dawn but nothing terrible, and in any case despite sleeping in the day before, I generally am the first one up any way. Day 2 dawned grey and blustery. A curious east wind bellowed as we ate our breakfast, two packets of instant oatmeal and freshly roasted Dunn Bros. coffee. While the wind never relented the rain was lighter and more sporadic, so our gear was merely damp when we struck the tents and headed out on the water again.
Now seasoned by a solid day’s travel, everything went more smoothly as we traveled down Ensign to Vera, and across Vera to Knife. Both portages were beautiful - long arcing passages of open rock through a biome that was wholly new to me. I’ve spent a lot of time on the Gunflint side of the Boundary Waters and so this area seemed quite exotic - easy to find landings with pebble beaches, simple, stair-like ascents and nice dry, rocky ridges. And oaks! I’d almost never seem them in the BWCA. With trails as beautiful and strange as these, no one could mind double-portaging.
The sun began to peek through as we took a break for lunch on Vera, and by the end of the lake we had stripped off our rain coats. The portage from Vera to Knife was the most beautiful of all, but did offer one significant challenge spot, a short, steep descent over an awkwardly exposed ledge. Finding discretion to be the better part of valor, we conquered this by dismounting the boats and bringing them down in two man teams. The two men in question turned out to be Movie Mike and myself, who ended up taking both boats both directions.
Knife proved to be well worth the effort. As it was now late afternoon and time to make camp, we chose a site in a bay near the portage to Portage Lake, at the western end of Knife. It was perhaps the most beautiful campsite I'd ever seen. Set on a grassy hill at the side of a long, deep channel, it offered some shelter from the wind without sacrificing views of the lake to the east, including the Isle of Pines. It also had excellent tent pads, a good landing and a couple small beaches. And if that weren't enough, the previous campers had left us a huge pile of nice, dry firewood. They even separated the kindling.
I split wood, made a fire and got dinner started while everyone else went fishing. Nothing was caught but we did feast on more Viggo, and the second growler of beer. We turned in exhausted, elated and satisfied. 
Day 5 of 5
Sunday, July 04, 2021 Got up at 5:30 Had oatmeal. Packed up camp and headed to Ima. We got across the portage to Thomas pond and were starting the next 25 rod portage when people started coming up. We thought the next group would start across while we were taking our first load across, but they were waiting when we got back as well as a group of 4 canoes behind them. We finished the portage and told the 2 brothers in 1 canoe to go ahead of us since they were single portaging. We made it to the the Ima portage and were dropping our 2nd load when the other group caught up to us. Dan had told me to get across the rocks and drop my pack in the canoe and hold it to keep it from floating out. This portage is really tight and rocky. I inhaled a bug on the way down, slipped and sat down on a partially submerged rock with the pack on. I was busy hacking up the bug while he went back for packs, paddles, poles etc. Not our most efficient exit. I should have moved the painter to the back and tied off the canoe. Sorry guys from Atlanta. I hope you finally caught some fish. They'd been skunked so far. I think the heat and sun was not good for the fishing. [paragraph break] We looked at the sites nearest the portage to the east on Ima. They seemed really exposed and the wind had picked up so we turned and went to the site west of the portage. (2207) We got out to look at it and it seemed pretty nice. There was a long point of rock to the water, decent logs. I looked at the map and figured out it was the site that was rated a 1 - 2 star site, I hadn't written down why, and it seemed ok so we decided to stay. It was very scenic and had shade in the back. Marginal tent pads but we found one that was ok. It took a while to get up bear bag ropes, but not bad. We put up the tarp back in the trees since it was 90 degrees and the fire pit area was really exposed with no trees. We started noticing a lot of frogs and toads everywhere. It was fun watching them hop across the site. Had PB&J for lunch. We did laundry, and showered to cool off and sat in the shade under the tarp. Omelettes with salsa and cheese, hash browns and lil smokies for dinner. When we were cleaning up we could see clouds and rain across the far side of the lake, then lightning. The setting sun made the sky look like it was on fire. and the lightning was getting worse. it started to rain so we moved back under the tarp to finish packing up the food bags to hang as it started to get dark. This was when we found out why the site was rated 1 to 2 stars. I have never seen that many mosquitoes. It was like some of the films of Alaska where the caribou are driven crazy by mosquitoes. There was still a lot of thunder and lightning. The rain stopped and we got the bear bags up. We used the bug head nets to go to the latrine, but it's hard to see at night with it on. We used Slappy to clear the tent of mosquitos before calling it a night. We called this the Frog and Mosquito site. [paragraph break] Thomas 7 R Thomas pond 24R 20R Hatchet 28R Ima. looking for site 5.1 Miles total 4.2 paddling .9 miles portaging
Day 7 of 5
Monday, August 31, 2009
Day 4, we left broke camp and left Knife Lake. Though we were sad to leave, our sorrow was mitigated by a plan we had hatched before the trip to spend our last night on Boot Lake, where we hoped to meet Eglath, who was beginning his own solo trip. This required completing all of our Day 1 and Day 2 travel in a single day. It also required that Eglath arrive a day early to claim the site we wanted on Boot, which of course could not be guaranteed.
Any number of things could have gone wrong to prevent our success. We were, again, later getting started than planned, and with double-portaging, we took three times as long as I had expected. We had honed our strategy and EP and Mike B took over portaging their boat, which allowed me and Movie Mike to tackle the Alumacraft as a team (to this point I had portaged it completely on my own, while Movie Mike portaged the other one). As we walked a portage the first two times, I would count my paces. While making the third and final trip over with the boat Movie Mike would take the first leg while I counted my paces yet again: when we reached the halfway point, we would switch and I would take the boat. This spared both our spines even if it didn’t buy us any more time. An unexpected side effect was that we determined that the distance of 220 rods for the Ensign > Boot portage is not accurate. I counted 890 paces on that portage (a pace being each time the same heel touches down, or two steps). I haven’t measured my pace exactly, but using Eglath’s estimate of 1000 paces per mile, that puts the portage well over 220. After returning, a friend of ours suggested that perhaps the distance was originally described as being 220 from Boot to the small pond about 2/3 of the way over, and that the subsequent 65-80 rods were left off some old map and never reintroduced.
While we made steady progress, daylight burned away. Now very hungry and thirsty, we took a break for lunch at a campsite near the Ensign > Boot portage. Eglath had promised to meet us there if the site on Boot was taken, but it occurred to me as we wolfed down our meager rations that it was much later in the day than he would have been expecting us. Although not seeing him on Ensign should have been a good sign, it also meant uncertainty. We might well portage all the way to Boot and still find out site taken with no trace of Eglath - then be forced to portage all the way back across and find a site on Ensign, knowing we’d repeat the same process again the next day, or continue on to Snowbank and hope to camp there.
From the Boot landing there was no hope of seeing Eglath from the site, so we had no choice but to load in the boats and go for it. Exhausted and dispirited, I had abandoned all hope of rendezvousing with Eglath as we paddled out into the early evening still of Boot Lake. But then, miraculously, coming around the point I spotted an elfin, bearded figure by the water's edge. I hailed this man with a private signal known only to a select handful of friends, called the Call of the Marmot. When it was returned to me, echoing majestically over the water, I knew we'd found our friend.
We celebrated the end of our trip and the beginning of Eglath’s with a big meal and a fresh growler of El Nino IPA. Eglath shared his uneaten dinner from last night, and we shared our huge surplus of whiskey. Though it wouldn’t have made any huge logistical difference to either party, we were happy to see each other and meeting up made us all feel like we’d accomplished something. The frivolities lasted long into the night. 
Day 9 of 5
Tuesday, July 06, 2021 Got up before 5 am and packed up to move to Ashigan or Ensign. Much cooler today. 45 - 65. Made tea/coffee and had breakfast bars. Paddled across Ima with a fairly strong NE wind. No whitecaps like the day before, but a little rough. Went back through Jordan narrows and slowed down to take pictures and look for the pictographs this time. We only saw what looked like rust on the rocks. There were a lot of groups mostly coming in as we were going the other way. Dan met a guy that went to his high school in Dallas a few years after he was there. Small world. There was a group of scouts coming through on the 110R portage coming from Ashigan to Gibson. The lady with them said she was carrying the 90 lb food pack. She made it, but looked like her legs were a little rubbery at the end. I had caught her near the end and offered her my hiking pole to get through the rocks, but she said she could make it. She did a good job getting through. I've started using a hiking pole with the packs after a nearly disabling bruise from a fall on my shin. It adds stability so i can move faster and I didn't fall once this time. We got to Ashigan and scoped out the far campsite it looked closed in. The middle one was taken and the one by the Gibson portage is fully visible from the portage. The campsite near the Ensign portage had good reviews and has an open rock face. After the mosquito problem at the last site we decided that was a good feature. For being that close to a portage we didn't see many people. I guess most people come through early. There is a big hill on 2 sides that gives a lot of protection from anything but a SW or W wind. It's very well worn. Someone has managed to break the firegrate, and the sitting logs are pretty bad, but the rocks in front make up for it. We did all the cooking on the large flat rock there. The latrine is a long 160 steps down a winding trail in the woods and the latrine itself seems to be deteriorating, but it was usable. [paragraph break] Set up camp and had egg, cheese, bacon sandwiches for lunch and went fishing. There is a grass bed under the water between the site and the island. We were getting nibbles, but the kept getting off my line. One was a beautiful smallie with bright green and black stripes and a red splotch on it's cheek. Breeding colors? I finally noticed my hook was bent outward, probably due to getting hung up on a tree. Dan was having problems with his line twisting up, then his line getting caught on stuff, the anchor getting stuck when he was trying to pull over to his line, and finally pulling up a big stinky mass of old fishing line that got stuck on the anchor. Another fun day of fishing. We got some firewood from the shore and fished back to camp. Dan finally caught a small 6 inch pike and I caught a 4 inch smallie. We let them go and decided to make tuna cakes with the last packet of tuna. They were really good. I'll put the recipe on the food forum. They were pretty fast to put together too. Had with instant mashed potatoes and FD green beans. it had finally cooled off enough to enjoy hot chocolate that night. We drank it while we watched the sunset sitting on the point watching a beaver swim by several times. It was a good last evening. [paragraph break] Ima 13R Jordan 44R Cattyman 27R Gibson 111R Ashigan 6.8 miles total 5 miles paddling 1.8 miles portaging
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