In a perfect world, we get out of camp at 6 AM on this travel day. I guess I know this is unrealistic and hope for 9 AM. We are off at 9:30 ish. The wind has changed and we are into a pretty strong wind heading toward the Horse River. Overcast, a bit of spitting rain but we only notice the wind. I’m a bit edgy as we head into this wind. I suspect it is a good idea to keep the front of the canoe into the waves. This is Nicholas’ and my first good test in a canoe. I wish he wouldn’t lean so much as he paddles. When did I turn into a crotchety old man? I find out all three parties have the same concern. Bryce, Cole, Nick all turn out to be very strong padddlers….when they want. The mouth of the Horse is a welcome rest. Little did we know the low water on Horse would give us our first good test. We probably missed the first short portage on Horse. We were told it was not marked and we never really found a path. We made due like the voyagers of yesteryear and put back in after a short jaunt thru the woods. We made our own portage….glad it was short. How do you miss a portage? Where was it? Three portages are marked on the map for Horse. We portaged 7 times. We knew we were in the river, but we were behind where we though we were. If we missed on the map, it was in the Horse River. From my office in Atlanta, I expected the Horse River to be a nice float, catch some fish, take a break going down current. We worked our a**** off. Nothing we couldn’t handle but a bit of a surprise. Pete, an instructor at the local college called the Horse a “forming river….its only 10,000 years old, Mitch!” Maybe this is why it such a crapshoot on the Horse. Again, the opening to the Lower Basswood Falls area was welcomed. I had considered going east to Upper Basswood, but we were behind schedule. We were all impressed with the Lower Falls area and spent some time picture taking, and looking around. Much to my surprise, a few sites right around the falls were available. We considered staying but felt we needed to put some distance behind us. We carried on toward the Pictographs. I think I oversold the Pictographs. Maybe we should have spent more time discussing origin, people who made them, why they were in the region. We moved past in a few minutes. The wind was still an issue. You did not want to linger too long. It was time to look for a site. At this point, we had our choices; we saw very few people and sites were available. We were selective and did put on some distance between the Pictographs and our site of choice. We passed a few sites....the next site "was only 100 yards farther." It was in some narrows with a nice rock as a table, moss bed for a tent, plenty of fire wood, good fishing close, overlooking our Canadian friends. The two bald eagles we spent the next 24 hrs with rotated from US and Canadian side. They are a beautiful National symbol. The long day ends at 4 PM at this very nice site. After another well built Brian fire we had good food, good fire for the night. Brian and Dick cooked, again. Dick and Cole had a good night of fly rod fishing in the area. As we watched the fire, we could hear Dick yell out when something struck Cole’s top water presentation. I can appreciate his excitement for his son’s success. The big fire kept us up a bit longer as the clouds tried to part. Bryce predicted 3PM sun…..maybe it was 3AM?? The boys had hammocks at the last spot and more hammocks for tonight’s spot. Bed by 10:30….no stars with the breaking up cloud cover.