We awoke to overcast skies and headed to our entry point, Little Indian Sioux River #14, arriving at 10am. Cundy went and scouted the trail and came back saying that it was rough. I knew this would be an easy one. One other group was there ready to put in. We promised to be quick moving and left ahead of them. They only caught up to us once at the Elm Portage.

We lazily paddled through the LIS and came to our first portage, the Elm Portage. Troy and Tyler picked up the canoes, Bucket picked up his humongous food pack and I took the Kayak. Cundy took paddles and fishing gear. We single portaged the entire trip, much to the dismay of the weakest member of our trip, Cundy.

We continued paddling the LIS and arrived at our first lake, Upper Pauness. It was quite windy. I gave everyone a pep talk and safety precautions for crossing lakes in heavy winds. Everyone did a good job and we made our way to the 40 rod portage to Lower Pauness. We met a group with a pretty dog coming the opposite direction. They were kind enough to carry some of our gear on their double portage. Paddling across Lower Pauness I warned everyone that this next portage would be a challenging 160 rod job that required climbing a steep grade.

Upon arriving at the take out, Troy and Tyler decided to climb the hill across the river. We took the portage and decided to break for lunch at the end. Summer Sausage, cheese and crackers. At his point, everyone was getting tired of fighting wind, and we decided to take the first campsite available. We found our site, the second one on Loon Lake on a peninsula. We set up camp and made dinner over the fire, Fresh Sausage and rice.

After eating, we lounged around camp and decided to try our hand at a little fishing. Cundy caught the first fish, right off the landing with a firetiger Baby one-minus and exclaimed “It’s a Trout”. He was quite excited. It was photographed, and released.

Tyler and I were in desperate need of a fish. We couldn’t let Cundy have all night and day to brag, so we pushed off and explored Loon Lake looking for a fish. I caught a few smallies and Tyler had one hooked on the back side of an island, but it came unbuttoned. As Tyler and I paddled back to camp, the sun set and we began hearing a buzzing noise. We figured out what it was as they arrived back at camp. MOSQUITOS!!! We all expected them to be bad, but, WOW, they were bad. An early night in bed would turn out to be a blessing, as tomorrow would be our biggest day of travel.