*Portages: 5 (473 rods) *Lakes/rivers: 6 (LIS, Upper Pauness, Lower Pauness, LIS, Loon, Little Loon & Slim) *Distance: Approx. 13 miles (there is a way to figure this out on my GPS; I just do not know how)

I was up today at 6:30-which is ungodly early for me on my trips to the BW-or whenever I am not working, for that matter. I hit the water @ EP 14 at 9 am, and there was one group who entered in front of me and one heading out. I noticed a white pickup with Arkansas plates and wondered if it belonged to Arkansas Man...I thought he mentioned he'd be going into LIS sometime around when I did.

As I paddled into the LIS, I knew I needed to reorganize my gear to make it easier to carry on the portages. Nothing significant on the river; my hopes of spotting a moose were dashed, but that's okay as the only time I ever see moose is when Deb, my wife, is with me. The first portage was an easy 60 rods and I was soon back onto the LIS.

When I hit Upper Pauness, I was surprised by how windy it was so early in the day, and this would be the case for the reminder of the trip until the last day. The 40 rod portage to Lower Pauness went quick, and by then I had a system down with my gear on the portages that would last for the remainder of the trip: CCS Pioneer Pack (with map, PDF, water bottle and GPS clipped on the pack), paddles (in a paddle bag; looked like I was carrying rifles) and the leeches on the first trip and CCS Rucksack and canoe on second trip.

When I hit the 160 rod portage that would bring me back to LIS I ran into a group of 4 doing portage maintenance. They were polite and encouraging, which was nice as the first 1/2-3/4 of this portage is a bit of a climb. Not sure why people complain about these folks; I appreciate their time and efforts! I made a stop at the hiking campsite on the west side of the portage about 3/4 of the way north to look at Devil's Cascade, which was really moving and quite spectacular. I should have had my camera available, but I did not-and this is something else that would continue throughout the trip. Photo ops, but no camera...

I got back on the LIS and quickly made my way onto big Loon Lake. I stopped briefly at the 5th campsite going north on the east side of the lake for a quick bite and to get more water. From here on I always kept my water filter (MSR AutoFlow Gravity Filter) in the top of my Guide pack for easy access, and I started thinking about a future purchase: possibly a Steripen? I love the MSR, but it's not an efficient piece of equipment when traveling alone. I just sold my PUR Hiker pump, so that would no longer be an option, although I could always buy another pump for solo trips, I suppose. The thing that has kept me from getting a Steripen is that is does not filter out any of the larger particles that are in the water, but, ultimately, I do not think possibly drinking chunky water would bother me all that much. In any case, I have a gear purchase to consider when I get home, and that is always a good thing as I LOVE buying gear!

I got back onto Loon as quick as possible as it was really buggy and the wind was not offering any protection in the bay where I was located. I was hoping to snag the campsite at the far northern end of Little Loon as per Arkansas Man's suggestion, so I paddled through the narrows between Loon and Little Loon with my fingers crossed. I'd heard there was some decent fishing on Little Loon, and last year when I went through this area with Allie and Greta (my 14 and 13 year-old daughters), it was freezing, pouring and really windy, so fishing was not much of an option.

Both sites on Little Loon were taken, so I had the option of either heading back to Loon or moving onto Slim Lake. Well, I hate backtracking when on trips to the BW, so I pushed onto Slim. The 173 rod portage from Little Loon to Slim was challenging; I was tired and it was hilly. Ran into another group doing portage maintenance, and they told me they had not seen anyone traveling to Slim, so I knew my chances of finding a site on Slim were pretty good.

Passed the first site on Slim as it was barren, and settled in at the second site. This site was horrible in terms of finding a place to land. Located on a rocky outcrop, there was literally nowhere decent to land a canoe, especially given the wind, which was coming hard from the south. I finally found a place to land on the northern side of the outcrop, but it's one of those spots where the exposed rock quickly and steeply moves beneath the surface, so when disembarking, one needs to be sure footed and quick to avoid getting really wet!

I got my tent and hammock set up-didn't bother with the tarp-and proceeded to rehydrate some chili. I was not even remotely hungry, and I recall a number of folks on the bwca.com board commenting on how they did not eat as much on solo trips, and boy were they right! Mental note to self: on next week-long solo, if I have more food than what fits into the Bear Vault, I have too much and must cull!

The nice thing about the site was that the wind really kept the bugs away, even when I was on the northern side where I'd set up my hammock. As I lay in the hammock, it felt rather weird being all alone; I felt like I should be doing something other than just laying there, almost a guilty feeling! I wanted to fish, but being all alone in what to me was a big wind (whitecaps all around), I did not want to risk it. I tossed a Rapala from shore for a spell with no luck. In hindsight, I probably should have rigged up a slip bobber/jig/leech combo, but I didn't.

The hammock really felt good, although I am still not sure how anyone can sleep in the things. It was nice to lie down as my hips were really sore, especially my right one. I put a new seat in the Magic since my trip last week in hopes of alleviating this problem, but to no real avail so far. After 15-20 minutes of paddling, my hips hurt like mad, and I find myself constantly moving around trying to get comfortable. I am not sure why this is happening, and I hope it's something as simple as just getting used to the boat.

This was the first trip I've taken with a GPS, and it's nice to use as a cross reference with the maps. Although this route is familiar to me and is pretty much made up of smaller lakes, I can see how one would benefit from the presence of a GPS on larger lakes with numerous islands and bays. There are a lost of features that I need to learn how to use on the thing, but I enjoyed checking it out as I traveled.

Had a dinner of chili, with half of it going into the garbage, man, I had too much food! Went out to get some water, did the dishes and went searching for the latrine, which was easy to find as it was only about 30 feet away from my tent; YUCK! Another reason to never visit this site again. There was a cool "old" toilet in the latrine area-at least that's what I think it was. Got a couple of pics of it, and then went back to the hammock to read.

I crawled into my tent, my ungodly small, Big Agnes Seedhouse 1 solo tent that I'd dubbed the sarcophagus on my trip last week with Paul and Dave, rather early that first night as the wind died down at around 8:30 and I did not want to deal with a fire. The tent area was another negative at this site. While it was large enough to easily handle 3-4 tents, it was in a recessed area that would get drenched in a good rain, and it was also surrounded completely by trees, which eliminated any wind from blowing through. All in all, I'd give this site a rating of 2.

As I finally turned off my head lamp, I smiled to myself, knowing that I had successfully completed my first day of my first solo trip, said my prayers of gratitude and wished my family well.