We got an earlier start today than we have the last couple of days. We packed up camp and had granola bars and oranges as we loaded the canoes. We paddled the river and River Lake to the 20 rod portage marked on our Fisher maps- WHAT A PORTAGE!!! It had a decent landing on the north shore, but had downed trees, huge boulders to scale, and it wasn’t wide enough for the canoe to fit through. The south landing was extremely boggy and I thought we were going to lose a couple of boots. As we pulled away from the landing, I looked to the right and saw it- the REAL portage.   After walking back up that portage trail I discovered the landing for this "actual" portage is very close to the rapids and quite concealed by boulders. We continued down the river into Fishdance Lake and saw the pictographs. I was amazed at how many there were!

I only saw pictures of a few of them before the trip. From there, we headed back north to the portages to Alice. On the 70 rod portage we ran into “Go Solo” and chatted for a minute before we continued on our way. The end of the portage was really rocky. As we were trying to load the canoes and vacate the portage ASAP, a couple of guys pulled into the only logical loading place to fish. Don’t you love people who don’t use portage etiquette? At the other end of the puddle was a very intimidating portage- it had what looked like a 20 foot climb at the start of it. It wasn’t that bad, but by this time all of us were ready for a break. We stopped for a quick snack and watched a crane on the rocks across the river.

After a break, we headed for the campsite our outfitters had told us about. We found the site- with other people already on it. Our second choice site didn’t impress us, and the third one (west on the island) had a lot of downed trees and no decent bear hang. At this point, half of our group headed to the next site to the west of the island and decided we had found our “home” for the next two days, since the next day was layover. After a swim and making camp, I made beef stew, peas, and brownies. We then hung the bear hang and took a stroll on the beach before climbing into the tent and listening to the loons.  Alice Lake Campsite Review: Coming tomorrow! Lakes: Kawishiwi River, River Lake, Fishdance Lake, Alice Lake 8 1/2 mi paddled, 110 rods portaged