We almost always start a fire to boil some water for coffee and oatmeal or other hot breakfasts. Even though we get on the water and moving pretty early. We were up at 5:00 and on the water at 7:30. The sky was overcast with misty fog hanging over the water but we were moving and establishing our rhythm for paddling. Basically it was the young bucks way out in front and us working to keep up but we weren’t too concerned.

As we approached the 72 rd portage into Jack Lake we decided to look for the mine that we had heard about earlier. Near the end of the portage there was the faint path going off to the west. We followed and did discover the mine! What a neat diversion. Apparently some guys started a mine to test the ore quality in the area. They shipped it out by dogsled. This mine didn’t have the quality ore they hoped for and it was abandoned.

Jack Lake gave us two memorable moments. As we approached the 12 rd portage into Weird Lake we found a moose out in the lake. The front canoe being far ahead got the best view and better photos but it was a really exciting surprise for all of us. The second moment was funny/sad/a little worrisome all in one. We came in parallel to the rocks to unload our canoe and John let out a shout “There’s water in the canoe!” We unloaded quickly and pulled the canoe up to discover we’d scraped a really sharp rock that “tore” through the Kevlar side just above the floor and right next to a support rib. Hmmm, second day out and a leaky boat! We dried it off and hauled out my camo duct tape and with a temporary patch in place (worked great) made it to the farthest west site on South Temperance Lake.

This site was again tight for us but there was a blow down area behind the fire grate that John squeezed his tent into. The site is elevated and turned out pretty comfortable for us even though there is huge evidence of cut and chopped trees that people have gone after for firewood. We had a chance to assess the damage to the canoe and we decided to use my McNett Seam Sealer as a patch. After allowing it to dry we put a layer of sealer on inside and outside. The next morning Terry used a super sticky piece of Velcro tape to cover the patch and we upgraded to silver duct tape to give it a final covering. This repair lasted the rest of the week and the canoe didn’t leak one drop. (Lesson learned to carry a repair kit in the future. This was the first time for our group using only Kevlar canoes and we found it can be damaged!)