I awoke around 5 in the morning and the others woke up a couple of minutes later. Breakfast was scrambled eggs, bacon and english muffin with a pot of coffee. Our group was ready to push off first, when we see our other group heading down to the entry point as well. We dawdle for a while and make our way down to the water only to find out we are left with the leaky canoe.. (Why did we bring this one in the first place?) A quick and solid duct tape job does the trick well enough for the entire trip.

We paddle up Sawbill to Kelso. It is jaw-dropingly beautiful. We see a painted turtle and enjoy the serenity that the bwca offers.

As we pass by, we see a beaver home. It's amazing what such little creatures can make.

A short portage over to Alton and we are really getting a test of our navigation skills and paddling skills. The wind was whipping quite hard, creating white caps in the middle of Alton. We were early in the day still, so we decided to cast out for a few minutes. No luck. We continued on down towards the portage to Beth. This would be my first longer portage, though not too long. It couldn't have been more then 100 rods. I was trying to be the he-man in a group of a French exchange student, A Marine, A Pageant- Girl, Two sports girls and our two chaperones. I was quick to grab the food pack and the Royalex canoe. (65lb pack and 50ish pound canoe) Half way through the trail I ditch the canoe on the side of the portage. I was foolish to think we could single portage.

All was well through Beth. We wanted to make camp early, so we decided to to take the shorter portage from Beth to Ella. A semi-creek made for hard crossing through this portage full of mud. We got onto Ella and it was perfect time for a photo-op on the rocks and lunch of tortillas, peanut butter, trail mix and home-made venison jerky.

We checked out both campsites, both were heavily mosquito filled. We decided since it was still only early afternoon, that we would push on to Grace. This very well could have been the worst decision to make. On the Grace side of the portage is boulder scree that made it EXTREMELY difficult to put in or even walk on with no gear. To put a long story short, two canoes tipped, 1 pack became completely submerged and a lot of swimming and scrapes.

We took the camp site on the north side of Grace. Some kind soul was nice enough to leave a huge stash of wood so we could get to drying right away. Dinner was steaks and scalloped potatoes and a nice walleye.

After dinner, it was time for a quick dip in the lake. A thunder storm rolled in, so it was an early night for all. I hunkered down in the tent with the marine and frenchmen for a good nights sleep. The rain continued on and off throughout the night.