Wednesday, September 30, 2009 A sharp chill enters my sleeping bag and says "wake up!" Ted is an earlier riser and gets up also. The packs are covered with a heavy frost and the water filter line is froze. We decide to take an early morning hike and bushwhack over the ridge behind camp to a small, swampy lake to check for moose. They have left evidence of their presence on the beach. There are no moose out this morning so I head back out to the lake through the cedar grove and get some nice pictures of the fog as the air and lake play their games. As we eat breakfast the fog thickens as the sun brightens it up before burning it off. At 10:00 we load the canoe and prepare to head back out to Gordon and down to Sawbill.
It's a beautiful fall day and the temps warm nicely as we paddle down Gordon and fish a little until we reach the portage to Cherokee. A young couple is arriving on the other side and we chat briefly. They have come from Sawbill way and mention that there are a few trees across some portages. We know why! Lunch is taken on a rock point at the mouth of Cherokee Creek. The paddle down the creek's black water provides a view of numerous rock outcroppings, beaver dams and a small patch of Pitcher plants with their dark red color. The wind has left its mark at the start of the 180 rod portage out of Cherokee Creek. A large spruce is down right across the landing. You can land the canoe but you can't unload packs. I toss the gear pack across the tangled mess and Ted crawls through and digs out his Gransfors camp axe. He clips off most of the branches and makes things passable for crawling over the trunk. There are a few more trees down along this portage that need pruning and we also crawl over a small landslide. Continuing on through Skoop, Ada, and Ada Creek, we arrive at Sawbill Lake and pick out a campsite on the East shore about halfway down the lake. It's an okay site on a small point and I recognize some islands to the West from some member photos on bwca.com. It's 5:00, light is fading and it's going to be frosty again. A chicken and dumpling supper is made by firelight and the cold night air puts us to sleep.