Friday, June 27, 2008 I awaken this morning at 6:00 to the sound of light rain. Clouds fill the sky and it looks like hard rain is coming. I awaken Heath and we get the tent down before it gets too wet, and get all of our gear packed. Breakfast this morning is cold, beef jerky, gorp, granola bars, and coffee. At 8:00 we paddle out into a light rain toward the 310 rod portage to Hustler. The rain increases in intensity as we land at the portage and I take up my pack, place the canoe on my shoulders and start to head off. Then I remember to give my watch to someone, as the people not carrying canoes were going to leap frog this portage. Walk 15 minutes, drop their gear and go back and get the rest of the gear. And I was the only one with a watch, so I give it to Heath and head across. About 300 yards into the portage I come to a pond that crosses the trail so I wade through and continue on. On my return trip I see that the leap frog idea has fallen through as Charlie and Dave come on all of the way over. Shortly after seeing them I see Heath carrying a load and he tells me that he has lost my watch somehow. I tell him not to worry about it and I head back to the end of the portage to get the rest of the gear. Along the way I just breath a little prayer for help finding the watch. At the Oyster side of the portage I load up the gear and start walking back to Hustler. Again, I say a prayer for the watch to be found and keep walking. As I enter the pond I get about mid-calf deep and simply look down to my left and see the tip of my watch strap floating under an inch or so of water. The rest of the watch was 6 inches under water. Talk about prayers being answered!! When I reach the other guys they all think I had an extra watch but, I tell them that my prayer was answered and the watch was found!! I also started to give them a hard time about making the oldest guy who had cancer walk the mile back to get the rest of the gear, but I didn’t. Otherwise I would not have found my watch and had a prayer answered!

We paddle through Hustler which is beautiful lake, and head to the short portage to Ruby. On the Ruby side of the portage we noticed several large timber docks resting on the bottom of the lake and wonder what they are from. We reached the portage to Lynx and it is raining still. We head across and reach the sandy beach on Lynx, the guys give me a break and tell me not to go back this time for a 2nd load so I sit under a huge pine out of the rain and look at the beautiful Lynx. They return and we load up and head out. The best sites on Lynx and the site on Little Shell is taken so I am a bit apprehensive about a campsite on popular Shell Lake. Once there we split up with the radios and start looking for a site. Everyone we come to is empty! When we reach the site at the northern end of Con Island there is a Bald Eagle sitting in a pine tree above camp, a sign to me that is where we need to be! Once in camp we set up the tarp to try and get things out of the rain. The time is 12:00 and after paddling all morning in a cool rain I decide a hot lunch is in order, so I prepare Cream of wild rice soup with chicken and crackers. It was a hit for lunch!

This camp is high on a rocky outcrop with a great view. The rain finally subsides a little and we are able to put up the tents and let them dry a little. The rest of the afternoon is spent resting and fishing from shore with little success and exploring the campsite. We were entertained by muskrats in the shallow cove next to camp as they worked on their nest. The wind finally lays and Heath is able to take a canoe out to fish for 20 minutes before it starts blowing again and there is thunder in the distance. Dinner that night was tuna, salmon, crackers, pitas with mayo and relish. Dave wanted hash browns so I made hash browns as well. Then it started raining again only this time it was harder! Our fire that we had built was getting drowned out despite Charlie’s best efforts to keep it and himself lit! At 8:30 after sitting under the tarp for 2 hours in the rain everyone goes to bed know that we will be getting up early for the exit tomorrow. It continues to rain hard all night…