We were going to get up early and try to get to Kawnipi, but from 5 Am to 9:30 the heavens opened up on us.... Didn't see the point in drenching our gear before we even started so waited it out.

Got rolling by 10:00 AM. John and Angie were getting a little discouraged at this point and to tell the truth so was I but there was nothing to do than push on. We were a little worried about John and Angie paddling along the falls chain. They didn't really have the whole steering thing down yet, although speed wise they moved quite fast for rookies. Later I figured out there high speed was because my brother couldn't figure out the J-stroke or steering so he steered by just overpowering Angie the whole time. Left him exhausted but they were fast. Of course little brothers aren't allowed to take advice form their big brother, that would be too much for him to take :) he would rather just be exhausted each day:)

I insisted on taking the lead on the falls chain for safety purposes. The portages aren't terrible but with the constant rain the rocks were slippery and for a popular route the portages were narrower than I thought they would be. The first couple of portages went fine, tiring but the approaches went well. We took a lunch break at Bald Rock Falls because the sun actually came out for 30 minutes before it rained again. We took pics just to prove later the sun did actually shine.

Every thing was going really well until we came to to KoKo Falls. We hugged the left shoreline just like Janice said. I kept an eye on John and Angie the whole time and they were right behind us. I stayed a little too close to shore and nicked a log sticking out with the current swirling, we made it past the log and turned into the portage. As I was starting to get out of the canoe I hear Sara yell, " What are you doing?" like she is talking to one of our little boys....To my horror I see John and Angie in the middle of the current right above KoKo Falls with a look on their face like they don't have a care in the world. It soon registered to them they were in deep trouble. John started to panic and was just going from side to side trying to figure out how to steer. Sara yelled at me to do something, I yelled "Just paddle" the two of them started to dig in, I told them to both paddle on the right, but instinctively they were starting to get it....soon I could see they were fighting their way out of the current and making headway. I breathed a sigh of relief as I knew they were going to make it. Close call, another 50 feet before they reacted and I am not so sure they could have pulled out of it.

I asked them what happened and John said he saw the current throw me into shore a little so he tried to take a wider turn, over steered, and ended out in the middle. He didn't realize he was traveling sideways towards the falls in swift current until we started yelling at them.

Sara was a little shaken, as we portaged she wispered to me about the close call, "I almost lost my brother in law and my best friend in a matter of minutes." We both agreed we would watch them better from now on.

We reached Kenny Lake around 4 PM. We decided to camp there as we wanted to reach McKenzie Bay at least to camp on Kawnipi. We would relax and make a good push tomorrow. Like magic the sun came out as we camped. We were able to dry off a little, get the tarp up, before downpours hit us again. We enjoyed camp fire pizza under the protection of the tarp. Slept well with the sound of rain all night.