Tuesday, May 19, 2009 Breakfast is toasted egg, bacon and cheese sandwiches. Try some fishing from the bank, and can only get a walleye to hit a couple times and follow the lure to shore and stare at me. We get on the water about 8:30 am headed for Ogishkemuncie. Wind is light and in our favor. Temps are cool, but not cold, maybe high 40’s.

We try fishing across Little Sag, but nothing is hitting. We try deep, we try shallow, we try the bank and we try trolling….. nothing. Navigation is a little tricky with all the islands and coves. Make one wrong turn up a cove and can’t tell if narrow ways on the map are passable on the water. No problems, plenty of scenery. Have brought the compass and the GPS, but map alone is sufficient for now. We see a campsite occupied and see one canoe across the lake on the water. Forgot to mention that on Monday we saw no canoes until we were in camp about 8 pm. We get to the day’s first portage of 30 rods at Rattle Lake.

Next portage is 25 rods into Gabimichigami. The portage is quite wet, but short. We actually see fresh moose tracks where the moose came down the trail and went back. We stop on the Gabi side of the portage where it is wide and decide to eat lunch here as there is no traffic evident today. Krista filters water for black bean soup. She also picks several ticks off her. None for me. The weather is warm and sunny with a little breeze. Boy, that would change quickly for the worse by the time we get across Gabi and onto Agamok.

After lunch, we get on the open part of Gabi with a stiff breeze behind us from the southwest. Much better than the day before on Tuscarora. As the afternoon progresses, the sky gets cloudier and the breeze picks up. The temperature seems to drop too, or maybe it’s just the wind chill factor??? We make the portage from Agamok to Mueller and the sky is still cloudy, but no thought of rain is on my mind. Our plan is to make our first portage, with canoe and food pack, across to Mueller and stop at the Agamok bridge on the Kekekabic Trail on the way back to take pictures from the bridge of the falls. Good idea, bad timing! We leave the two gear packs sitting beside the portage on Agamok, uncovered. We leave our raingear in the packs as it is not raining. Before we get to Mueller, the rain starts. We drop the canoe and food pack at Mueller and make our way back. We decide to make the side trip to the bridge and take pictures in the rain. Moose droppings, tracks and wild geologic formations in the rock. What’s with all the triangles in the rock? Aliens?

The rain steadily picks up as does the wind. When we make it back to our packs, the back of my hands are cold and wet. We get our raingear and gloves out and make haste for the end of the portage. Hiking with full packs warms us up and we get on the water and make way for the next portage to Ogish. Even with the wind at our backs, I am getting cold and start considering options for making camp early. We pass the eastern campsite on Mueller and I start seriously thinking we need to stop at the western site close to the portage to Ogish. I’m worried the weather will worsen and we will get chilled to the bone. Krista says she thinks the weather will pass. With her willing to press on, we continue to the portage and make our way to Ogish. There is some old wolf (???) scat on the ground near Mueller, but I don’t want to stop to take pictures with the rain. Sure enough, we reach Ogish and the rain breaks. We go back for the packs and I get pictures of the scat. I may be wrong, but feel sure it is wolf, but old.

We make our way to the first campsite (#785) on Ogish and hope it is empty. It is empty, but the site to the northeast is occupied. We make camp around 4 pm and none too soon as we are hungry, cold and wet. The wind is still blowing and setting up the tarp is a challenge. The clothesline is filled with wet clothes and we are changed into dry ones. Dinner is good with 3-cheese lasagna. After dinner, I explore the island and get some sunset pictures from the high rock. Later that night, I got up to go to the bathroom and the northern sky was literally aglow with lightening from east to west. INCREDIBLE!