And finally September 5th arrived. We had our car all packed up the night before, and had checked out of the cabin. We traveled down the Gunflint Trail, had our breakfast at the South of the Border Café in Grand Marais, and then we drove to Sawbill Landing to meet Bill and David at about 9:30. I was nervous, and sort of dreading the trip. It is difficult to give up the “real” work of canoe-tripping. (That would be the portaging.) It has been very hard for me to admit that I need help if I am going to be able to go on anything other than the very easiest of trips. It is depressing to realize that I may be getting too old to be able to do the one activity that I love most. And I wondered, too, how I would adapt to having a large, rambunctious puppy along on the trip. My usual “before-the-trip jitters” were magnified by about 4X, and the ride to Sawbill and the unloading was sort of tense. Gloomy weather didn’t help.

Then we saw Bill and David, watched “the video”, picked up our permits, were introduced to Piwi,

and loaded up our canoes for the trip. Suddenly it had become a reality. Sawbill Lake was calm, with gray skies overhead, and at 10:40 we were off!

We had planned an easy first day. We paddled up Sawbill Lake, looking for a campsite on the northern end of the lake somewhere, thinking that we would stop early, have a quiet afternoon and evening, get a good night’s sleep, and be ready for a big day of paddling and portaging on Day Two.

We experienced some intermittent light rain as we paddled along, and it became obvious immediately that Neil and I would slow our companions down considerably. This wasn’t a surprise, as I am not a really strong bow paddler. But Bill had made it plain to us that there wasn’t any hurry, and they didn’t seem at all upset to slow down and wait for us occasionally.

We stopped at our island campsite about noon. It is a good site with pretty views of the lake.

Piwi explored every bit of ground, found new sticks to gnaw on, and checked out the underbrush, too. She is a very busy puppy, but quiet (not a barker, thank goodness!)

The sun was bright and warm. It was a pleasant afternoon. We enjoyed our usual lunch of cheese and crackers, some Kool-Aid and dried fruit. Neil set up our canoe to use like a table, as we often do. You can see that we take creature comforts like a chair and a stool, too, now that we are senior citizens. David prefers to just sit on the rocks.

After setting up camp, Bill and David went off to explore the upcoming portages and let Piwi do some running. While they were gone it blew up a stormy sky and sprinkled a bit, but nothing too dramatic, and then it cleared off again. This photo was taken at 4:15:

And this one at about 5:30:

Neil photographed this large fungus arrangement that he saw on one of the trees. He put down his glove for comparison in size.

This site has a nice rocky arrangement on the way to the biffy trail,

and of course just about the only flowers you will see in September, the purple asters, were blooming on that trail.

Neil and I enjoyed our traditional first evening meal of steak and oranges. Later on we all sat on the rocks and sipped bourbon during the evening calm. After rising early in the morning to get to Sawbill by 9:30, we were all tired, so everyone retired to the tent about 9 P. M.