Tonight's meal would be polish sausage and a vegetable. There were 3 polish sausages apiece and since we didn't want them to go to waste, we ate them all. I was stuffed. It also didn't help that I wasn't too hungry either. This was kind of surprising considering we had just got done burning tons of calories on our paddle. After getting camp cleaned up, I decided to go fishing on my own. It was kind of nice after the rain because everything was calm and the sun was shining. The canoe was kind of hard to steer though because I was sitting in the front with the back end up in the air. I needed some weight in the back. It seemed like I could be paddling on the correct side but the end would whip me around anyway and I would have to back paddle just so I wouldn't get completely turned around. I fished just to the south west of camp and had a couple hits on my lure but couldn't land anything. At least I had a little bit of excitement. I fished until just before dark.

We both took a dip on the water to clean off which made us feel better. Each night except the last, we tried to clean off at least a little bit. I felt clean enough even though you can't use soap in the BWCA. There was a nice 4 foot deep area in front of camp where I would bathe and dad was on the other side of camp cleaning off. I didn't need to see his half naked self taking a bath. The water was cold at first but once I was in it, it wasn't too bad. I can't imagine how you would be able to get in the water in May and June after the ice had thawed. I remember having to be extra careful getting in and out of the water because wet rocks and bare feet make it very slick. I didn't want to slip with my bad leg and hurt myself even worse. My water shoes would have come in handy but I didn't think of that until just now. Another thing I remember how white I looked out there. I know I don't get much sun but I looked like a ghost. After drying off, we went to bed. I did hang some of my wet clothes out to dry for the night. This would be all for nothing because I let them hang during the day and it rained again on them. Total distance today on portages was 372 rods or 2046 yards and 7 miles of canoeing.

We both slept well again that night but I could tell that I was getting stiffer and sorer as the trip went on. On our third day which was Wednesday, we had blueberry pancakes and bacon for breakfast. Things were going good until we lost track of the pancake batter and let it bake a little too long. The batter was starting to set up and we had some of fattest pancakes I have ever seen. They were still good though. Today we planned on making our way to Moosecamp Lake and see how the river looked. This time we would be heading down the barrel of Gun which I remember someone saying was very long. When you look down the stretch of water, it doesn't seem very far but when you start to paddle it, you start to see how long it really is. This stretch made me think that I was paddling down the Missouri River because it was so wide and long.

The portage to Bullet Lake was only 10 rods but had some decent elevation to it. In coming up to the portage you would think it would be a short easy one because you could see Bullet Lake easily from Gun. Bullet Lake consisted of two small lakes that were connected. They were also fairly shallow. On the east end of Bullet was a rocky cliff near where the portage to Moosecamp was. I decided to throw my lure and on the first cast I caught a small pike about 15 inches. The second cast I had another bite. It seemed like we were really on to them here. Every other cast was either a strike or a landed fish. I caught about 8 pike but none were much larger than 15 inches. It was fun to have some really good action though. The wind was blowing fairly stiff so we had to make quite a few passes up and down the shore. After maybe 30 minutes, I couldn't get any bites so we took the 44 rod portage to Moosecamp. This portage was pretty easy except for a few sharp turns in the trail where you had to make sure you didn't hit your canoe on a tree. The landing to Moosecamp was fairly small but since we knew there was no one behind us, we took a short break and some pictures. We had been told from Ryan at the outfitter's that some people had actually seen a moose on Moosecamp so we hoped that we could see it too. We headed directly south of the portage to what looked like a rocky cliff area to fish. The water was actually very shallow along here. We continued east along the shore and made an occasional cast but the water just seemed too shallow. On the very east end was where the Moosecamp River started. We had been told that it was shallow but I had also read trip reports that it was a very scenic area. Knowing that we wouldn't have much time to fish if we went very far down the river, we turned around. It did look low and there was plenty of vegetation coming through the water.

One thing I noticed on the lakes in the BWCA is how there are big logs just out in the middle of the lakes. They evidently get waterlogged and you will just be floating along and there will be a big log just below the surface. We weren't on Moosecamp for over an hour and decided to head back towards camp. While on this lake, I pictured the Google satellite maps I have looked at many times and figured out what the landscape would look like from the air. The wind had already started to pick up to maybe 15 mph so it made for a hard paddle back to the Bullet portage. My muscles still hadn't recovered from all the paddling we had done the previous day so it didn't take long for me to get tired. In heading towards the portage, dad still had to ask where we were headed. I never could figure out why the whole time he couldn't locate portages even when we had just passed through some. Maybe I just had a better sense of direction and knew from my time studying the maps where they were. It still wasn't too hard to see where there was a dip in the tree line or where it got thin where the portage was.

Once we got to Bullet Lake, we decided to take a 15 minute lunch break. Lunch was sausage sandwiches. There was some cheese that was still back at camp that I told dad to bring because I thought it was for the sandwiches. It irritated me that he forgot to bring it when I had it setting out. Later I realized that the cheese wasn't for the sandwiches anyway. I'm not exactly sure if it rained on us while after we finished lunch or when we were on Bullet Lake earlier but it did rain. It didn't last too long and didn't amount to much.

On Bullet we decided to fish the same spot where we had caught all of the fish earlier. I think we caught a couple fish but it wasn't like it was the first time around. Now that I think of it, I think it was raining on us when we were on Bullet Lake in the morning and perhaps that is why the fish started to bite. We then headed to the barrel of Gun to try fishing the long rock face that is near the Bullet portage and the long 300 rod portage that heads up north toward Friday Bay. From what I could tell from the terrain in the area, the portage might have been fairly flat. The wind was blowing pretty good still as we tried to fish the barrel of Gun. It would have been nice to have some kind of anchor to hold us in place. While we were fishing, a light tan canoe with two guys in it were paddling towards us. Their canoe was very sharp looking. I had talked to a guy on the BWCA forum earlier in the week that said he would be up there the same time we were and that he would have a unique light colored canoe. I would almost bet that this was the guy but I didn't want to just yell over and ask him. I thought they were probably headed to Moosecamp but they just checked out the 300 rod portage to Friday Bay and turned around to go back west on Gun. Since we weren't catching any fish, we decided to take the long paddle back to camp. Gun seemed like a really long paddle.

Tonight's supper was beef and gravy over mashed potatoes. It was again almost more than we could eat but was very good. I never would have guessed that dehydrated and powdered food could be so good. After supper we paddled around Fairy lake and tried to fish. Nothing was biting so after taking a few pictures of the lake, we went back to camp. I wanted to dry my socks out so I sat by the fire roasting my socks. I still had an extra pair of dry ones but wanted to be prepared. They didn't get completely dry but they were good enough. We went to bed around 8:30 again that night. Total portage distance for the day was 208 rods or 1144 yards and 8 miles of canoing. I carried the canoe and two packs over each portage.

That night, we got lazy and didn't put our food pack in the tree. A ground squirrel must have gotten into our pack because we had a granola bar that something had chewed in to. Thursday morning we had a terrible time getting a fire going. All the wood around was still damp and even though we cut into some logs to get dry wood, we couldn't get anything going. It was very frustrating because right when we thought we had a good fire going, it would go out. Once we did get the fire going, we had french toast and bacon. Another excellent meal. By the time we got our tent and gear packed away and all of the soot washed off the pots, it was almost noon. This was a little frustrating because I wanted to get going much sooner. It didn't really matter though because we were only headed to Fourtown anyway. I kind of hated to leave camp because this had been our home for 3 days. It also reminded me that my time in the BWCA would be coming to an end soon. I also got to thinking how I will probably never see this place again because while I hope to go back to the BWCA, we will probably take a different entry point to see something different. I guess many vacations are this way.

On the portage back to Boot Lake, it started to rain. The nice thing about the rain in the BWCA while we were there was that it didn't seem to last more than 30 minutes. We crossed the portage and tried to wait out the rain. It wasn't coming down hard but just enough to get you wet. We were too lazy to put our rain gear on because we knew the rain would pass soon and then we would have to pack up the rain suits. I'm not sure what to think about rain gear. I read on the BWCA forum that good rain gear is a necessity. We could have taken light ponchos along and saved us some weight and bulk but we didn't want to be caught in a set in storm and not be able to do much. I probably should have trusted the forecast more which only called for slight scattered showers the week we were there. Next time if the forecast doesn't look too bad, we might just take light ponchos. It's not like I haven't worked in the rain before out on the farm. I've worked in rain when it is much colder and managed, so I'm sure we would have been o.k.

We tried to wait out the rain but after a while we decided that if we weren't going to put our rain gear on, we just as well get wet out on the lake fishing rather than on shore. We fished near the portage along a rock face but didn't get anything. Today would be a bad fishing day without even a bite. I just wish we knew how to catch fish in the BWCA. If this was the Valentine Refuge, we would have hammered the pike. The wind was blowing about 10 mph which wasn't that bad but just enough that you had to work to get where you were going and couldn't just sit in one place to fish. We made our way south on Boot and would fish a few places without any luck and then move on to another spot. North of Fairy Lake we hardly saw anyone but Boot had about 3 different groups on it. It just seemed like we were back in civilization as we headed south. Near the south end of Boot near a marsh area we decided to fish because the outfitter had this marked on our map as a place to fish. There was also a large rock in the lake where we took a leak on. It was near a camp site but I guess I didn't care. Now that I think of it, this probably wasn't the nicest thing to do because perhaps someone would get water there.

Today was actually cloudy most of the day. With the wind and poor fishing, it didn't seem like a very fun day. Knowing that we would leave the next day didn't help either. We made our way back to the portage going to Fourtown where I took some video footage of me carrying my packs over the portage. I thought I probably looked pretty tough carrying two large packs, one on my front and one on my back, going over the portage. With my knee still stiff, I just didn't want to have to cover the portages any more than necessary. Once at the Fourtown landing, we decided to eat a quick lunch of peanut and butter sandwiches along with a little bit of everything else we had. From that spot, dad tried taking a bunch of panoramic pictures of which only a couple even turned out very well. At the landing I spotted what I thought was a broken pole that someone left there so that they didn't have to carry it around. Upon paddling closer to it I noticed that it was a brand new Shakespear 4 or 5 foot pole. Someone had evidently unloaded their gear and forgot their pole. I stood it up along a rock hoping that the owner would come back and see it. If the owner happens to read this and found his pole, please let me know.

It was maybe 3 in the afternoon and since we didn't have any place to go, we decided to take it easy paddling across the lake. We passed by the burned island and the campsite that is to the north east of it. We then cut across to the east side of the lake to find a campsite. Fourtown seemed like a city compared to where we had been earlier in the week. I suppose this doesn't bother some people but it seems that if you had the ambition to cross the hard Mudro portages, you just as well take a few more easy ones to get away from people. We headed across the widest part of the lake when the wind started to come up. Once we got near the eastern side where you head to Horse Lake, we pulled to a small cove near shore to let the wind die down. After a few minutes, it let up and we decided to continue along shore to the south. We ended up staying at the middle campsite of where a large island splits the lake on your way back to Mudro. Fortunately the site was open. With all the people around, I was starting to wonder. It turns out that the next group of 3 campsites even closer to Mudro would be open also. The site we chose had a large rock incline to get to the tent and kitchen area. I think I liked our little spot on Fairy better but this spot would be nice if you had a larger group and needed a bigger camp. One thing I didn't like about this site is how used it looked. People had cut down trees and branches, left trash in the fire grate and carved stuff in the trees. It was kind of disgusting to think that people would do this. Fairy Lake, Gun Lake, Bullet Lake, Moosecamp Lake