DAY 3 June 16, 2011, Thursday  (12 Miles) Birch Lake, portage 48 rods, Carp Lake, portage 25 rods, Melon Lake, portage 15 rods, Seed Lake, portage 15 rods, Knife River, portage 75 rods, Knife Lake,

I was up at 5:00 am and made coffee. My coffee time is an important part of my day and I usually have 4 or 5 cups before breakfast which I did. Breakfast consisted of granola with dried milk that was premeasured and packed into zip-lock bags. All I need to do is add water, mix and eat straight from the bag with a spoon. (No dishes to deal with.) My sweet Wife made the granola especially for me and it is full of goodies and sticks with me a long time. After packing up I paddled east to the portage to Carp Lake. I had to wait my turn as there were two other groups ahead of me. One was a guy doing a solo and the other group was a guy and a girl. I found out in short order that I had packed too much stuff because I had to triple portage to get all my gear across. Next trip will be different. I still had 4 more portages in front of me this day and they are not spaced very far apart. After the portage I paddled across Carp Lake to the next 25 rod portage into Melon Lake. Melon Lake is a small lake that I crossed quickly and then came to the 15 portage into Seed Lake. On Seed Lake I paddled past the portage to the Knife River about ¾ miles before I realized that I had gone too far and had to back track causing me to rack up some unintended extra mileage. I finally found the 15 rod portage and continued on Knife River to the last 75 rod portage of the day into Knife Lake. Knife Lake is a large lake that could be tough to paddle solo if there is wind, but I was lucky that I had only about a 7-10 mph head wind that day. It was slow going but I continued in a northeasterly direction following the south shoreline. I tried to stay close to the south shore in case a stronger wind should come up and also I needed to find a suitable campsite at some point and it would have to be on US soil. I followed the meandering shore and it took me quite a while to make it into the South Arm of Knife Lake precisely because I didn’t go in straight line, but I like to err on the side of safety. I was really getting tired at this point so I decided to take a campsite near a short portage to the Northern Arm of Knife Lake not far from where the South Arm narrows down. I was glad to have this nice campsite. Just after coming ashore a stronger wind came up that lasted for an hour or so and then quieted down again. I hung my hammock and rain fly and had dinner. After dinner I walked around this large campsite and I heard a grouse drumming and decided to see if I could find it. I don’t think the bird had ever seen a human before as I was able to walk quietly up to within about 8-10 feet of it and it still continued its drumming routine. The bird was about 25 feet behind my hammock and drummed all night until daybreak.