Wednesday, July 07, 2010 Purposely a planned easy day - assumed about 2 hours from here to EP14 and shuttle pick up at noon - but also knew we might have been in Loon or further if wind and rain were worse. Woke to one of those glassy perfect mirror days. Tried a banana nut muffin mix in JMO - big success. Packed and headed out. The portage mid way was also flooded, with strong flow right by portage start and knee deep water all along. A BSA Order of the Arrow lodge was in midst of a service project to maintain portage and seemed to be doing a good job. Not sure I like the amount of “maintenance” and “improvements” in BWCAW as compared to Quetico but they were working hard in tough conditions and seemed to be doing a good job. (We’re both Arrow men.)

I’d like to know what results in the “foam” but in this final stretch of LIS, we saw more foam - almost like whipped cream or gelato - floating by. Some chunks were the size of 3 or 4 or 5 canoes. The put in cove at the bottom of the portage to EP14 was simply filled with the foam. It clung to the canoe when I pulled it out and was there till after we pulled out if parking area.

Echo Trail back to Ely was slow and had many washouts, with multiple road crews working on repairs. Seems they were also doing some planned improvements.

Great trip. Roughly 85 miles we figure. Would like to explore more of LLC and this western end of BWCAW and Quetico. Still think I prefer the Q for solitude and fewer improvements but won’t hesitate to try BWCAW again - especially early or late in season