We woke up and got packed up while Carl fried up some pancakes for the group. Everything went smoothly and we were an hour ahead of schedule as we headed south toward the portage into Lamb Lake. It wasn’t obvious where the portage was, but we found it after a couple minutes. I was confused as to why the Fisher map that the outfitter had given us listed this portage as 165 rods and my Voyageur map listed it as 65 rods. After examining the path a bit we took a left turn, which gave us the long 165 rod portage, which was long and muddy, but not too bad. I’d like to go back and look around again to see where the shorter option actually was, because I didn’t see it. After a quick paddle across Lamb Lake we made our way up the steep ascent onto the 225 rod portage. This portage to Nina Moose was as bad as advertised, with a lot of elevation changes, rock, mud and even a big downed tree at chest level over top of a big water hole which made for extra fun. It seemed like this portage took us forever, as we double portaged with 3 of us while the other three rested at the end.

Nina Moose was a welcome sight, as was the Moose River which was an easy paddle back to the entry point portage. The beaver dams seemed to have grown slightly over the past 6 days, but were still passable without having to get out of the canoe. We only met 2 groups on our way out, which was a welcome change from the busy first day we had. The final ½ mile portage was tough due to the fact it was uphill the whole way, but at least it wasn’t muddy. After we finished carrying, we broke out the cigars as the outfitter driver drove up. He brought us a cooler with Budweiser and Coke to drink, which was a nice surprise. We stood around and shared our week with him for about 20 minutes and then piled into the van back to the outfitter. The shower felt fantastic and we had an uneventful drive back to my place after getting some grub. Overall, it was a great week. We didn’t catch quite as many fish as I had hoped for, but it was certainly an adventure and I am definitely looking forward to doing it again next year and hopefully someday with my two boys. My only regret was that we didn’t take the time to see Curtain Falls, but maybe next year we’ll check that off the list…