Friday, August 05, 2011 Aug. 5- Up around 6 and fidgeted until breakfast was done, say 8:00 or so. Then we loaded Burt’s truck at he took us to the put in at the bridge.

We were finally in the water at 8:30a.m.!

Entry Point: South tip of Little Caribou Lake 50* 20’ 22.6”N 89* 5’ 17.9”W Day 1 – Little Caribou Lake, across Caribou Lake, up the Caribou River 23.3 km travelled Portages: 1: 260m Campsite Night One - Island site in the Caribou River - 50* 30’ 28.5”N 89* 9’ 21.4”W.

It was a beautiful, sunny morning as we made that first dip of paddle to water. Excellent conditions in which to begin our Wabakimi sojourn. We paddled up Little Caribou Lake as some light clouds floated overhead. The lake is a narrow one and the wind was mild. Sweeps and I spotted a bald eagle about half way up the lake. We made the 11km before lunch. A short portage into Caribou Lake and we were on our first big water of the trip. We saw a broken down old cabin as we crossed the portage.

The wind was coming up as we headed west toward the park. We decided to head south of Beaver Island to save several km of paddling. The wind was from the southwest and we were getting some pretty significant windblown waves across the left front quarter. It always makes me a little nervous being out in the middle, paddling against a decent chop, with a fully loaded canoe. But the Souris River Quetico 17 and Dave’s MNII are both sturdy, stable craft and we were across the 8km of big water just about the time we noticed the sun was on its way to the west. We entered the Caribou River and discussed where we wanted to camp. Dave suggested we push on about five km to the little island site on the map. I thought it was pretty late, but we voted to keep going. I was wrong. The sun doesn’t set up here until quite late, close to 10pm, and we had plenty of time to make a few km, set camp, and get a fire going for dinner. We had camp set and dinner cooking by 8pm.

Good thing Dave brought his grill since I forgot mine in our rush to leave Chicago. [Note to self: DON’T WORK ON THE DEPARTURE DAY!] Filet mignon and corn on the cob for dinner.

A nice night cap, and off to bed just as the sun was setting.

No mossys. That surprised us all. Once I was in the hammock, and the sun was down, the mossys came out in force. We could hear the little vampires buzzing outside the net just dying for a little taste of our vital bodily fluids!