We awoke and it was not sunny and 75, it was drizzling and would continue to do so on and off the rest of the day. We had Mass in the morning (again the readings had a similar theme) http://www.usccb.org/nab/062909a.shtml Act s 12:1-11, Ps 34:2-3, 4-5, 6-7, 8-9, 2 Tm 4:6-8, 17-18, Mt 16:13-19, and after a breakfast of cream of wheat and bacon we headed out around 8:30 AM. The wind was still in our face and blowing pretty hard, but no white caps. Once we made it through the gap Little Loon lake was relatively calm. We hit the 173 rd portage just as another group was coming out. They told us of a loon nesting at the other end of the portage. I’ll try and add a few photos of that. Slim lake was calm and we found the “moose trail” that the outfitter told us about. It was marked with 4 flat small stones piled on top of each other. This moose trail was supposed to connect Slim and Fat lakes (it does). The first portion of the trail is modestly steep and has some boulders to climb. We were double portaging, taking our packs through first. After the boulders there is a “Y” but the left branch quickly ends and the right is the correct route. Being early in the morning and a little used path we found ourselves getting a little wet. It was nice to have a GPS at this time because this was an unused trail and if you look at the map, one could wander off to the southeast and walk for miles before hitting water. There were 3 trees large enough to have to climb over and several areas of mud, but we made it through. Bringing the canoes through was a little more challenging because there were several tight areas on the trail which required some back and forth maneuvering. I felt sorry for the pair that decided on an aluminum canoe, after the tough morning headwind paddle, the 173 rd then the 210 rd we all were ready for a break. We ate lunch at the Fat end of the portage- peanut butter and jelly on pitas. Fortunately no one was around for us to block. A short paddle across Fat brought us to the 60 rd portage to Eugene. The logs and rocks only allowed one canoe in at a time and the swampy area was ripe full of mosquitoes. After the longer portages in the morning the 60 rd was a breeze and flat. Eugene and Little Beartrack were both easy short paddles with an easy 30 rd portage between. The 30 rd between Little Beartrack and Beartrack is also fairly easy. We had decided to camp on Beartrack which has 3 sites. My canoe was out first and the weather seemed fairly calm. No lie, my bow paddler states, “At least there is no wind and rain”, and within 30 seconds of him saying that, the wind kicked up and 30 seconds later, the rain started. The lake started to get a little choppy. I was in no mood for that and we hustled across, but in our hurry we mistook a finger of land for the campsite and had to head a little north once we discovered our error. The campsite had a fantastic dry landing with room for plenty of canoes. The tent pads were a little rocky, but there was a great fire area. Latrine is secluded and enough trees for a tarp. Of course in the evening the rain let up and we had a great dinner of jambalaya with smoked sausage and fresh green beans. It went great with the Black Box Merlot. Since the next day had to be 75 and sunny we again left our socks and other clothes to dry…you guessed it…it rained that night.