Cool and sunny, Alpine Aire 5-grain muesli for breakfast, one of our old stand-bys. Away at 8:30.

The McNiece to Kashahpiwi portage is a bear, as advertised, or a beautiful walk in the park, depending on whether you're carrying a load or returning for the second one. 164 rods with everything a good Quetico portage can offer: several steep climbs including two “goat” staircases and a 40' cliff face, a swampy stretch strewn with cut logs and hordes of newly-hatched mosquitos. There are pine trees along the way two men could barely get their arms around also.

Kashahpiwi Lake is a relief from the heat and mosquitoes and it's a bluebird day with a moderate headwind, just enough to keep the canoe tracking straight. Dramatic cliffs, the east side burned in what must have been a dramatic forest fire in 2007. A helicopter lands on the ridge behind the old firetower —there may be some fires in the region caused by the thunderstorm two days ago. We catch and release several small lake trout trolling Rapala Tail Dancers north, the only canoes on the lake.

The five-star cliffside campsite on the upper east side of the lake we have heard so much about appears to be right in the midst of the forest fire devastation (I later read in a trip report on one of the bulletin boards that it is still habitable). We paddle on to a four-star campsite near the north end of the lake. It's a nice site although there is only room for one canoe landing at a time and it's a challenge finding shady spots for each of our tents (the four of us sleep in separate small tents).

Whole wheat bagels with peanut butter, cream cheese, jelly and bacon and peppery venison sticks for lunch, then a swim. The water is colder than McNiece but not freezing. We rarely swim on these early season trips—between the cold water and the bugs it's usually a rather unpleasant experience, but this trip it's a luxury, and we can even lounge around camp in shorts and Tevas afterward without getting bit up.

We take advantage of the lack of wind to paddle across to the northwest corner of the lake and catch and release a few bass and lake trout but nothing exciting. On the way back our fish finder registers a maximum depth of 150'. After dinner we head out again (sunset is around 8:30 but it doesn't really get dark until around 10PM this time of year). This time we troll right into a school of walleyes hanging around in about 8' of water, and large and smallmouth bass along the shoreline in the fallen timber, and catch and release fish until around 9:45, then head back to camp for dessert, mosquitoes and a full moon rising.