This day I arose early again and had my usual breakfast of granola and coffee. I packed up as quickly as I could because I wanted to get an early start across Knife Lake before the wind picked up. Knife is a big lake and can kick up some rough water on windy days and I did not want to be in that position. I paddled south westerly to the 200 rod portage into Vera Lake. The portage into Vera is a much tougher portage than what I expected. The portage is long and climbs steeply to the top of a large hill. It can be slippery on wet days but I was fortunate that today it was dry. This is by far one of the toughest portages I have ever done and I had so much gear that I had to triple portage this baby. It took me about 2 hours to get my stuff across. Total distance 1000 rods considering 5 trips across equals 3-1/8 miles. I was tired. Then I paddled west across Vera Lake to the 150 rod portage into Ensign Lake. This portage was also a tough one but not as tough as the one from Knife to Vera. I got all my equipment over to Ensign by about 3:00 PM. I then paddled west across Ensign into a fairly stiff breeze from the south that produced some white caps but my canoe handled them well. I took the first available campsite on the western shore and settled in for the rest of the day exhausted. I was flat out of gas and had no more go in me. I set up the hammock, rain fly and my chair and placed all my gear underneath the fly. Then I went for a dip in the lake to get cleaned up and made some freeze-dried beef stroganoff for dinner. I was in the hammock by 9: 00 PM and I was out like a light.