It was already pretty warm when I got out of the tent at 6:30 at our Carp Lake campsite. I made coffee as the sun rose above the horizon in a hazy eastern sky -

Our campsite -

The small bay where we floated last night -

David got up and we lingered a long time, relaxing and drinking coffee, watching a beaver swim by and the moon set in the west behind us. We had hung up the coffee in its own bag so I could easily get it down in the morning, since I often rise before David. Here I'm jotting down a few notes over coffee while the food pack was still hung up. The pack is higher off the ground than it looks in this picture because the rocky campsite sloped down at that spot -

After a leisurely pancake breakfast and a morning swim, we got underway a little before 11:00 - late even for us. As we crossed Carp Lake we saw two more base camps. At least I assumed they were base camps, because anyone who doesn't break camp before we do must be base camping, given our stately morning pace. Carp Lake would be a nice place for an extended stay, with its easy access, many day trip options, and beautiful shores -

We would see no one else today as we went just a little further from the entry point. Our basic itinerary on this trip had us going eastbound through the Man Chain and then looping back to Prairie Portage via the lakes to the south, skirting the border along the way back. But there were many variations on that general theme, and we wanted to take it one step at a time with no advance agenda. Our first decision was what route to take from Carp to That Man, the westernmost Man lake. In 2003 we went via Sheridan Lake, which I think is the main route, and is the only one marked on the Fisher maps that were our sole guide back then. Now we were armed with maps showing all the portages in the area, and we opted to head for That Man via the unnamed lake northeast of Carp, a route we thought would be less traveled. I think I read another report where this unnamed lake was called "High Man," and that proved to be a fitting moniker. The portage goes up steeply from Carp and provided a healthy workout. The path is fairly overgrown but not hard to follow -

Bluebead lily -

High Man Lake from the portage -

High Man is a beautiful little northwoods lake. We decided to paddle down to the end of it -

The shores of this little lake were crowded with cedars. Shan Walshe says this area of Quetico is the only part that is largely greenstone, and that the cedars like its limey soil compared to the more acidic granite that covers most of the rest of the park. That seemed to be true. Nearly every lake we passed through the next few days was lined with cedars, some very large. Something else I noticed first on High Man, and kept seeing the next few days, is that there was no browse line like you usually see on lakeshore cedars. I guess the white-tail population hasn't exploded across the border.

When we got to the far end of High Man, we turned around and paddled back toward the portage to That Man -

The first part of this portage goes up a bit, then levels out in a densely vegetated stretch, where we found this picturesque little fungus -

Further on the portage descends through open woods to the shores of That Man -

We paused at the bottom to filter some water and get a drink -

Now we were ready for lunch. And we knew a perfect spot just around the corner - the island where we had camped the first night of our 2003 trip. As we paddled over there, a small falcon flew by, its call confirming it as a merlin. We pulled up to the campsite and tied off the canoe for lunch at about 2:00 -

I had fond memories of this campsite, and it was nice to visit again. After eating, David got out the map to see where we were going -

We lazed for a few minutes, then charted our way down That Man Lake toward No Man, pushed along by a friendly tail wind. The east end of That Man is nice and sandy, with sun-bleached cedars washed up by the prevailing west wind -

I had forgotten how pleasant the portage from This Man to No Man is. It's basically a smooth sandy path the whole way. We found a bunch of Indian Pipes near the trail. These two were cooperative photographic subjects -

Birch and mushroom -

The easy sandy landing at the No Man end -

We zipped across No Man Lake to the southern portage to This Man. In contrast to the smooth, level portage from That Man to No Man, the trail from No Man to This Man is steep and rocky. Arriving at This Man Lake -

By now it was getting to be time to look for a campsite. In 2003 we met a guy who had been camped on Cheatan Bay, which is hidden away at the east end of This Man. The maps and databases do not show any campsites there, so of course I wanted to explore it. But it was getting a little late to paddle all the way down there without knowing what awaited us. Besides, this trip was about taking our time.

As we paddled down This Man, there was a small island directly ahead that was supposed to have a campsite, and that seemed to invite us to stop by with what looked like a "door" among the cedars that covered its shoreline. We headed there, checked it out, and decided to call it home for the night. We got there about 4:30 and went for a swim before setting up camp. Yours truly at the Cedar Glen campsite -

After dinner we went for a paddle in the anvil-shaped bay to our south, with cedars on the shores and big pines emerging from behind in the twilight -

When we got back to our island, a nighthawk was flittering over the lake, advertising its presence with its distinctive peeent call. After battening down our site, we settled in for a little Maker's Mark before bed. This island lacked a nice rocky outcrop by the shore, but we found a good spot down among the cedars where we could sit and sip our bourbon, while we watched the reflections of the opposite point and the night sky slowly blend into each other on the surface of the darkening lake. The skeeters weren't bad, even after sun down. But by about 9:00 we were ready to get in the tent and read a bit before sleep. I woke up briefly in the middle of the night to hear a barred owl calling in the distance, then fell back into a deep sleep.