We awoke this morning to a beautiful day! We had Bacon, Egg and Cheese Breakfast Wraps and began tearing down camp to proceed on our way. As we packed up, we began to see the first hints of what would eventually send our trip plans into disarray! We were on the water by about 10:30 and made quick progress across the easy portage to Fairy and then on to Gun. Today we actually had a tail-wind once we made the turn into the "barrel" of the gun. We met a couple of groups coming from the 300 rod portage to Wagosh and inquired about conditions for future reference.

We found the portage to Bullet near a rocky stream and prepared for our first trip across. About 2/3 of the way across, the portage turned to swamp and it appears that perhaps a beaver got a bit ambitious and raised the water level a bit. We slogged our way through and went back for the rest. The landing on the Bullet side was swampy and required some interesting maneuvering to get into the canoes.

We paddled through the shallow waters of Bullet to the final portage right next to the beaver dam. This portage seemed quite a bit shorter than the distance printed on the map, but the landing on Moosecamp was a mud hole! There were a couple of rocks to stand on to load/enter canoes, but then it required some tricky maneuvering to get out of the little inlet and into open water. This portage is located about 100-150 yards back a little tiny inlet and is very difficult to find from Moosecamp for first timers. We had to give 2 different groups directions during our time here!

In the process of making this final portage of the day, Cheryl's sole was broken. 15-20 years of camping and hiking had taken its toll! Fortunately we were done portaging for the day, but we knew that our grand PMA exploration plans were now history, and we would still have to find a solution for our exit!! A few strips of emergency duct tape on the back half of the sole of Cheryl's 20 year old Vasque hiking boots and they would, with care, see us through the end of the trip!

Having seen pictures of the middle site (#1089) on Moosecamp, we decided to head there first and check it out. It is a great site set about 6-8 feet above the water on a large sloping rock that extends along the shore to a marvelous sand beach and deep swimming hole. There are multiple possible tent locations and a very nice view! However, we had also received intelligence (props to Bogwalker) that the far East site (#1090) was also very nice and decided to leave a pack and some small gear as a way to reserve this site and check out the other!

We began the paddle down the lake with a moderate tail-wind which just prior to arriving at the east site, turned into a frenzy! The sudden wind and waves were enough to put even the most seasoned paddler on edge. We managed to use the little bay near the campsite to turn around and made a quick decision to return to the other site. This experience showed us one thing, just how unstable the Jensen is for maneuvering in wind and waves. After nearly going over and quickly retrieving Cheryl's hat from the water, we began the slow paddle back upwind. With arms burning, we arrived back at the site and got our camp set up.

We were a little later than normal and had a very good dinner of Chili and Cheesy Biscuits. We went for a swim and cooled off in the wonderfully cool water! Mark grabbed a rod and threw a few casts along the weeds next to the beach and in just a few minutes, had nabbed a 20-22" pike. We let this one go as we have found that keeping fish overnight is just a huge invitation to turtles!

We enjoyed a BW sunset and made our way to the tents for the night!