Day Three- Another travel day so coffee and a quick breakfast. Good weather aided our continued enjoyment of river travel. About halfway between Rice and Quadga lakes just beyond a campsite there was a small rapids and portage that showed up only on our Fisher maps. It caused little problem though as we were able to canoe it easily.

The next two rapids we were also able to paddle through with little problem.

The portage into Quadga was interesting with an intersection about halfway through. Going left took you back to Isabella River and a right turn ends up at a jewel of a lake. The wind was picking up so we looked on the west side first and found the first site as you go clockwise around the lake to be outstanding. There is a wide open canoe landing area and then a short walk later you come to a wide open slightly elevated site with a well placed fire pit and enough space for all of us to pitch our tents comfortably. There was also a convenient spot for a rain tarp near the fire grate.

This site connects to the Pow Wow trail as you continue to hike past the pit toilet. After camp setup we toured the lake in a clockwise fashion and found the next site to be root filled with a watery depression although it had a decent landing area.. The second site we visited had a poor landing, an interesting fire grate with bench seating where we took a siesta and hung out for a while. Tent sites were sparse with one decent one behind the seating area a ways back and another site up and behind that one. The last site was actually a natural beauty worth the trip across the lake to climb in the huge fractured rock along the lakeshore and take pictures. The fire grate was very exposed and we felt the tent pad sites were very limited. We did find a bow saw hanging from a branch and “borrowed” it back to our site. We left it there when we left along with a more than adequate supply of cut and split firewood.

I fished briefly in a couple of coves south of our site with no luck. However both coves contained beaver lodges and in both cases a beaver surfaced near the canoe and gave a slap-warning that the canoe was near enough. Fishing stopped just to watch the action going on around the canoe. An action packed game of UNO followed the sad fishing attempt but was more entertaining to watch.