Day 1: Saturday July 21st. Up early with a quick breakfast of blueberry coffee cake and banana bread. Years ago my daughter gave me a small Starbucks thermos that works really well for canoe trips…a fellow doesn’t have to remove the lid just push this button in the lid…works slick… so I filled that up to make it through the morning. We got packed up and on the dusty road and were at Brule Lake EP by 7:30. My wife Lark and I had only been in that area once several years earlier and the roads were really bad... dusty, washboards, and two nasty logging trucks that kept finding us around every bend. This year road conditions were half decent. At the EP there was no one in the put-in, the place was quiet, and most important of all a gentle wind out of the north….none of my concerns about this day of the week and going in at BIG Brule were realized  We headed north and west through the Cone lakes with Winchell Lake being our destination. Water levels were good so we didn’t have to use the portages….just put a few scratches in my newly varnished SR canoe. We have seen only one other canoe party….where is everybody?  The first portage of the day was the 160r into Cliff Lake. Portages on this part of the park are a little more rugged than in the Ely area. In addition my wife had two stents put into her heart late in April so she would not be a mule on this trip. Jeff (a big kid) and his son Austin are very seasoned paddlers so we got them across ahead of us so they could get a site for us in case Winchell was crowded. This was the first ever portage for newbie boy scout Alex so he had his work cut out for him. Hey…he did better than this 62 year old carcass.  No other parties on the portage. We got all our luggage across the portage and continued east on Cliff Lake…pretty lake but no camp sites. Then we moved the baggage across the 14r rod portage to Wanihigan, and paddled north to the last portage of the day… a 14r into Winchell. Now to find Jeff and son Austin who had to have arrived hours before and should have scouted the place out. I had read from trip reports and BWJ at there was a 5 star site on a point….and I was hoping against hope that it might be open. It is the 5th site going east from the west end of the lake. Another answer to hope and prayers…it was open and Jeff and Tyler were on it!! It has a nice water front, flat rocks, and several nice tent pads. This would be base camp for a few days. Lunch was jerky, cream cheese, and bagels.   Fishing poles were put to work and the fishaholics caught a decent bass and northern from our site and were invited to dinner. Dinner that night was fish and garlic scalloped potatoes .   Winchell seemed empty…saw a couple canoes but a lot of empty camp sites. I figured it would be a zoo on Brule and this lake….being a Saturday with people coming and going but I was totally wrong. Sleep was good that night….back in the Boundary Waters once again….thank you Lord.