We woke up later than we normally would – 8:15. Two large groups of canoes went by before we had breakfast started, which led us to feeling a sense of urgency about getting moving today.

A quick batch of oatmeal was whipped up, along with our first attempt at camp coffee. We purchased a small percolator prior to the trip and decided to use the Foldgers coffee grounds inside a bag (like a tea bag). Turned out pretty well, but we cut the steeping time short so we could pack up the kitchen gear. Tomorrow we boil the water with the grounds in for full flavor. Real coffee beats instant any day, though! Our campsite was close to Thunder Point and we couldn’t resist making a stop there. The quarter mile long trail ascends rapidly – just enough to get the blood pumping. The view from the top was well worth the time and effort and provided some nice photo ops.

Paddling east into Knife, there were fewer people and many open sites. We stopped for lunch at a peninsula camp site with a gorgeous view and wild blueberries! Despite the poor crop this year, we managed to grab some good ones. More boats were congregated near the portage into Eddy Lake – day trippers taking photos of the falls. The 25 rod portage was steep, but we single tripped it and got ahead of the crowd. We figured we would come back and check it out after setting up camp.

With two sites on the west end of Eddy, we thought we’d secure something off the beaten path and score a bit of solitude in this busy area. The first site, on the north shore, had a gently sloping, gravel swim spot, lots of shade and a fire ring near the water. Perfect, except for the fallen spruce tree right over the fire grate. Paddling on, we discovered the western most site was taken. Back we went to the first site. Dave whipped out his camp saw and in about 30 minutes we had the spruce tree cleared out and a perfect camp site. A quick dip in the water cooled everyone off, followed by a lunch of summer sausage, pita bread and peanut butter. Dave and Audrey did some fishing in the cove across from camp, but the only thing they caught was a tree trout. Exploring was next on the agenda. We paddled back to the portage from Knife into Eddy to see the falls – wow! There’s one large falls into a pool with another large falls. It was definitely worth the time to check it out. A short paddle to the east end of Eddy led us to the third camp site (taken) and the portage into Jenny Lake. I decided I had to dip my toes into “my” lake, which actually turned out to be Kek Pond since I misread the map. Ah well…we did get to see another nice falls about halfway along the 15 rod portage into Kek. Dave made some casts into the base of the falls coming into Eddy and had a smallie on, but lost it at the boat.

It was already dinner time when we arrived back at camp. Dinner consisted of cup o’ soup, sweet potato fryin’ pan bread, Mountain House Chicken Teriyaki and raspberry vanilla mousse. Our neighbors at the western site came home and started cleaning a mess of fish on the rocks across from our camp site. It looks like they had a good day. With everything cleaned up and a fire going, all we had left to do was hang the food pack. Oops! This campsite was awesome, except for its lack of decent trees for hanging a pack. Dave paddled down shore and dropped the food pack away from camp…we had to hope for the best. Just as that problem was solved, another descended on us – skeeters! We did see a bald eagle fly in several times to clean up the fish guts left by our neighbors before diving into the tent for refuge.