It was a lovely morning at our Sawbill Lake campsite. Lynda got up around dawn to take pictures, and that got me out of the tent to make our morning coffee. The temperature was probably in the mid-40s, with mist rising off the lake.

David and I were relieved to find out that Neil and Lynda take a similar approach as us to packing up in the morning - which is to say, they like to take their time too. They also cooked up fresh eggs and shared them with us. That's a nice treat! They had fresh eggs for pretty much the whole trip - they are carried in a container under the stern seat of their canoe to protect them.

We got underway paddling about 9:45. Today we would see how David and I measured up as portage Helots. Our first test was just around the corner at the north tip of Sawbill Lake - the first 90-rod portage we took Piwi walking on yesterday afternoon. This portage is smooth and flat, so it made a good place for a trial run.

We had worked it out so that David and I would each take two trips across the portages with our own gear, and then make one more trip with packs for the Spartans. With return trips between loads, that added up to five trips across all the portages for the two of us. In the meantime, Neil made two trips with gear - their canoe on one trip, and a pack and miscellaneous gear on another. Although Neil was only carrying gear twice, the pack he carried was a real bruiser - I tried it on one portage and decided to leave it for him the rest of the trip. Se he was doing about as much work as us. Lynda made one trip across with her camera gear (which is not an insignificant load).

That all worked just fine, and we were soon on our way up Ada Creek to the second 90-rod portage that David and I had crossed yesterday with Piwi. Since David and I had taken pictures on our outing through here yesterday afternoon, we didn't take any this morning. In fact, our picture taking was pretty pathetic on this day. Fortunately, Lynda took lots of great photos, and our own effort improved on subsequent days.

This second portage was considerably more rugged than the first, with a fair amount of ups and downs over rocky outcrops. As mentioned, our friends Heather and Marshall (Wilderness Mama and Papa) had recently been up to Cherokee Lake and told us one of the portages in this area could be bypassed by paddling up the creek and pulling over a big beaver dam. We thought this was the portage they were telling us about, but we weren't sure, and the marshy creek looked like a bit of a maze that we could get lost in. So we placed our bets on the sure thing and took the portage. But as David and were picking up the last packs to carry across on our final trip across the portage, we saw a canoe heading up the creek. And sure enough, by the time we had completed the portge, loaded up, and paddled out onto Ada Lake, that canoe was coming up the stream (which meanders pretty far from the portage in between). So it took those guys about as long to paddle up the creek as it took us to make one of our five trips carrying gear on the portage. We would have to try the creek on the way back later in the week. It would be easier pulling over the big beaver dam going downstream anyway.

Out on the lake we briefly talked to the group that had paddled up the creek, two two-man canoes. It was funny, because although they seemed to have outsmarted us getting to Ada Lake, they seemed to have no clue whatsoever about where to go next, as if none of them knew how to read a map or navigate. We pointed the way and went ahead toward the next portage, which would take us to little Skoop Lake.

Our various maps were in serious disagreement about the length of the portage to Skoop, suggesting it could be anywhere from 10 rods to 100 rods. Since we had a lot of portaging to do today, we were happy to learn that 10 rods was the more accurate number. We bypassed the alleged longer stretch of portage by paddling up a narrow marshy channel -

After transporting our gear across the short portage, we decided we had better stop for lunch before tackling our next and last portage of the day, which would be a long one. The Skoop Lake end of the present portage had a nice flat rock area where we could eat without blocking the portage landing. That was a good thing because it was pretty busy while we were there, with the four-man group we had seen on Ada Lake passing in our direction, and a friendly chatty couple going the other way.

After lunch we paddled up Skoop Lake to the long portage to Cherokee Creek. According to my GPS this portage is about 230 rods - longer than indicated on the maps. That added up to more than 3 miles for David and me on our five trips across, which took about a hour and 40 minutes. I didn't mind carrying three loads over the up-and-down of this portage, but I do have to admit that it got a little repetitive by the last trip across. At least Piwi was getting plenty of exercise. In the meantime, at least one group passed us by on their way to Cherokee Lake. I think this was when I joked "just don't take our campsite." We also chatted with two cheery women valiantly single portaging in the opposite direction, one of whom posts on bwca.com sometimes as canucanu2.

Eventually we completed this carry and began paddling down scenic and marshy Cherokee Creek. It had clouded up in the meantime (I think it might have even sprinkled a little during the last portage) -

It wasn't long before the creek deposited us at the south end of Cherokee Lake. The Twin Points campsite that the Spartans hoped to revisit was just around the corner. But as it came into view, we realized it was occupied (I think by the same guys to whom I joked not take "our" campsite). That was a disappointment for the Spartans - Lynda especially. Fortunately, another excellent campsite was unoccupied up on a big rock slope across the bay, and we claimed it for the night. Maybe the Twin Points site would open up during the next couple days.

We got to our site about 3:15. While we were setting up camp, Piwi went exploring. She reappeared full of excitement carrying . . . something. We quickly realized it was the hindquarters of a hare, which must have succumbed to some other predator. There didn't seem to be much harm in Piwi running around with the rabbit piece - until we saw her rolling all over it back in the woods. Since David and I had to share our tent with her, we decided the rabbit had to go. But it wasn't easy to get her to give it to us. And she certainly was not happy when we hopped in the canoe with it (but not her) and paddled to a nearby islet where we tossed the battered pelt up on shore.

After that we finished setting up camp, and David and I went for a dip to rinse off the grime from the portages. We still had plenty of time to enjoy the view from our elevated campsite as the sky vacillated between clear and overcast -

Another view into the channel behind our site -

After dinner, Lynda and Neil shared their strawberry cheesecake with us, which was yummy. We sat for a while with our bourbon, then hit the tents a bit after dark. We had a cozy campsite setup -

Total distance for Day 2 (including all trips across portages) - 10.8 miles.