Our second morning on Cherokee dawned with heavy fog. Lynda took some good photos of the scene while I concentrated on my first cup of coffee -

Neil got a nice campfire going again (he puts a few larger logs on one side of the grate to corral the burning wood and embers in a smaller space for cooking) -

After a while I asked Lynda and Neil if they had decided what they'd like to do the next couple days - stay put here in hopes the Twin Points campsite would open up, in which case David and I would do the overnight Temperance loop, or all go together to Frost Lake. Lynda opted for Frost Lake. She hadn't thought they would go beyond Cherokee, but now the prospect of doing so attracted her. Hey, it's not everyday you have Helots to help on the portages! Sure, the Spartans might miss out on the Twin Points site if it opened up while we were gone. But there was still a chance of finding it open when we returned from Frost to Cherokee tomorrow. Neil is easy-going and happy with any plan, so of course he agreed, and so did we.

We tore down camp and packed up our gear to get underway. Just as we were loading the canoes, it started raining in earnest. Neil thought it looked like the rain was settling in for the whole day, and from the looks of it he could have been right. As it turned out, it did rain intermittently, sometimes hard, sometimes as fine mist, throughout the day. But we also had some good stretches without rain, although, unlike yesterday, we didn't see much blue sky in the rainless interludes on our way to Frost Lake today.

Though the weather was not ideal, it was better for paddling than for sitting around. A huge bonus was that we had a light but steady tail wind blowing us up Cherokee, which is a major boon on a larger lake. This picture captures the atmosphere of much of our trip up Cherokee (although the water looks remarkably calm given our helping tailwind - maybe we were in the lee of an island here) -

Toward the north end of Cherokee, we passed a group that was unloading their canoes at a campsite. They told us they had come from Frost (how do others get going so early?) and had left the "beach campsite" open. That sounded good.

Soon we were at the short and easy portage into Gordon Lake. By now it was time for lunch, so after carrying our gear across the portage, we paddled over to the southern campsite on Gordon to eat. The campsite was so-so, but provided a good lunch stop.

As we continued up Gordon after lunch, we snapped a picture of Neil and Lynda during a break in the misty rain. I like this photo -

Gordon is a very pretty lake. As we got closer to the portage to Frost, we neared a rock formation the Spartans had described as looking like a smiling face. David and I thought it looked more like a rabbit -

Soon David and I arrived at the portage take-out. But it took a while for Lynda and Neil to catch up. It seems there was a loon that needed photographing (see Lynda's report for the nice results).

This is the view from the landing on Gordon during one of our return trips on the portage - misty, autumnal, beautiful -

I enjoyed this 140-rod portage. Although it was still pretty well-traveled with a nice tread, we could tell we had turned off the main route as we made our way through the wet and verdant forest -

On one of our return trips for more gear, a glistening fungus growth on a tree caught David's and my eyes. Lynda did not notice this until our return trip tomorrow, because you could only see it going back from Frost to Gordan, which her one-way trip didn't allow today -

There was a grove of big cedars at the Frost end of the portage (midget provided for scale) -

The portage ends at a beaver pond named Unload Lake, which is kind of like the antechamber for Frost Lake -

We paddled across Unload, pulled over a beaver dam, and entered Frost Lake proper. As we started down Frost, I surveyed the scene through my binoculars, and could see a camp set up behind a beach all the way at the west end of the lake. I thought this was the "beach site" we were heading for so that we might be in for another campsite disappointment. But as we paddled a little further, it became apparent that Neil and Lynda were hoping to snag a site on the north side of Frost where they had stayed before. It was open, and it was a wonderful site, so we claimed it for the night.

After we had settled in, a few "blue clouds" appeared over the beach in the bay to the north of the site -

As the sun started coming out in earnest, it actually got a little toasty purifying water -

Piwi enjoyed catching a few rays -

I tend to like grey misty scenes more than most people do, but I have to admit, you feel good when the sky and light gets like this after a couple wet days -

Drying out -

Dinner and nightcaps were topped off by a brilliant sunset -

A minute later -

Taking in the scene -

Lynda does most of the Spartan photography, but Neil can't resist sometimes (with good results) -

One last sunset shot -

A beautiful end to a fun day.

Distance traveled Day 4 (including all trips across portages) - 8.4 miles.