Lynda had already been up for a while when we got out of the tent at first light on Frost Lake. It was a beautiful cloudless morning - a first for this trip. The lakeshore lit up as we enjoyed our morning coffee -

During breakfast, the Spartans shared the last of their fresh eggs with us as a tasty treat. Then we packed up camp. For some reason the rain tarp was really soaked, top and bottom, so it took some extra effort to take it down and shake it out without getting ourselves soaked too.

David and I were ready to launch before Lynda and Neil. Since the two of us had never been on Frost Lake before, we thought we would use the extra time to paddle out and investigate the lake's most prominent landmark, a big rock that seemingly rises out of nowhere in the middle of the water. Close up we could see that there is actually a larger shoal on one side of the big rock. But it's still an odd and interesting formation -

The Spartans were loading up as we returned from our mini-excursion. Then we began retracing yesterday's route back to Cherokee Lake. With the beautiful blue sky, everything looked completely different from yesterday's shades-of-grey theme. We took this picture of Lynda and Neil paddling ahead from the beaver dam separating Frost and Unload Lakes -

After the short paddle across Unload, we began our five trips back and forth across the longish portage back to Gordon. It was very pleasant in the cool dry weather.

We had not gone far, but after the portage it was already time for lunch. So we paddled over to the northern Gordon campsite to eat. If I recall correctly, this northern site was a bit nicer than the southern one we ate at yesterday, though maybe the weather played a role in the impression each site made. But neither site was all that great, which is kind of a shame, because I thought Gordon Lake itself was a beauty. This is a shoreline view looking back in the direction of the Frost Portage -

Another view of the Gordon smiley rabbit -

We enjoyed the rest of the paddle south on scenic Gordon and then quickly dispatched the short portage back into Cherokee. The north basin of Cherokee looked expansive under the blue sky -

The wind had reversed direction over night, and so for the second day in a row, we enjoyed an easy tailwind as we paddled the length of Cherokee. That's not something that happens too often, and we savored the experience.

As we traveled down Cherokee, a couple of loons allowed the Spartans to paddle up next to them for photographing, and then they were joined by a third loon too. David and I tried to take some meta-photographs of the loons being photographed, but none of them turned out. (By contrast, Lynda's photos of the loons turned out great - see her report for those.) But we did get this decent shot of the Spatans paddling Cherokee around the same time -

As we neared the south end of the lake, I hoped to find a particular campsite open that I had noticed when David and I did our Cherokee reconnaissance a few days earlier. (This site is marked "Swim" on the map above.) If the Twin Points site was also open, we could let the Spartans have a night there to themselves, while we stayed at this other site. And if the Twin Points was occupied, then we could all stay at the other site.

The good news as we approached my target site was that it was available. The bad news, though, was that when the Spartans' Twin Points site briefly came into view in the distance, I caught a glimpse of something that looked like people there.

The Spartans naturally wanted to paddle down to the Twin Points to see if it really was occupied. So David and I decided to unload our packs in a prominent location at our site to claim it, then follow Lynda and Neil down to the Twin Points to check on it. When we unloaded our packs we took a closer look at our site. It was very nice, with a great view - but it only seemed to have one decent tent pad. That would be a problem if all four of us needed to camp there. Well, we would cross that bridge when we came to it.

Leaving our packs at our site, we followed the Spartans to the Twin Points. We could see that it was in fact occupied, and Lynda was talking from the Spartans' canoe with a man on shore. Then we were surprised to see Lynda and Neil paddle to the second of the twin points and get out on shore. It seemed they had secured permission for a little photo shoot of each other from one twin point to the other - a reenactment of what they had done two decades ago and again one decade ago when camping at that site.

Spartan photo op -

Neil -

Lynda -

Ho Ho and Piwi waiting offshore during the photo shoot -

While we waited, David and I conferred about our camping plan. We didn't think it would work for all of us to stay at the site where we had left our packs. Fortunately, the high site where we had already stayed for two nights was open again. As Lynda chatted with the guy staying at the Twin Points site, we decided to paddle over and claim the high site either just for the Spartans (if we stayed at the site where we left our packs) or for our whole group, depending on what everyone wanted to do.

Once they were done with their photos and chatting, Lynda and Neil paddled across and joined us. The group decided we might as well all stay at the high site again, since it was a pretty nice site and accommodated the group comfortably. So David and I (and Piwi, of course) paddled back to the other site to get our packs. While we were there we enjoyed a swim in the last of the direct sunlight hitting the shore. This is the view looking out from our swimming site -

Soon we were back at our old trusty site setting up camp. It cooled off pretty quickly as the sun lowered behind us and cast the camping area in shade -

I enjoyed a little quality time with Piwi -

Later on we had some "bad dog" amusement when David found Piwi snarffling around the entryway to the Spartan's tent. It seems that she found a bar of soap there and was busily consuming it when she was busted. Eating soap is one of her strange puppy predilictions. Fortunately, it never seems to do her any harm. Also fortunately, Lynda and Neil got a good laugh and didn't seem to mind the consumption of half their bar of soap too much.

Over dinner, Lynda reflected on how the trip had turned out differently from her original hopes. By going up to Frost Lake, the Spartans missed the opportunity to lay claim to the Twin Points campsite when the previous occupants left, before it was occupied again. But now she thought the trade was well worth it, because the trip had become much more of an adventure than she had imagined it would be. She also remarked on how friendly and kind the guy at the Twin Points site was to let them take pictures there and share a little reminiscing. (It seems there was another guy at the site too, but he had retired to the tent the whole time the Spartans were there.)

We enjoyed more conversation over a little bourbon as the sky began to darken -

Then we made it an early night in preparation of our longer day back to Sawbill Lake tomorrow.

Total distance traveled Day 5 (including all trips across portages): 11.0 miles.