After coffee and a breakfast of breakfast fajitas (made with dehydrated eggs that were not from Cache Lake and left much to be desired) we headed to the east end of Gaskin and took the portage into Henson. A short paddle across Henson and then we were onto the portage to Pillsbury. Once on Pillsbury we could not find the portage into Swallow as it had been moved further east than what was indicated on our map. We stopped and had lunch at a campsite and then continued down the north shore and found the portage to Swallow. We crossed Swallow and found the Meeds portage and all was well until PhuD went to step out of the boat and got the "I'm going to faint" look in her eyes. She sat down and drank what remained of the clean water. MuD started some water through the filter and after PhuD confirmed she was feeling better MuD took off with the canoe and the food pack. The portage from Swallow to Meads was wet and sloppy. There was a downed tree at about head level and fortunately the fishing rods had slipped from their position just before MuD ran canoe first into them. MuD used this down tree to rest the canoe and secure the rods and then continued on his way. Upon return to PhuD we refilled the water and loaded up. Trip 2 consisted of PhuD carrying a couple paddles and MuD carried the two remaining packs. The portage was uneventful and we arrived on the Meads side portage ready to hit the water.

The wind had picked up during the day with the wind out of the east. Heading into the wind the waves were getting bigger as we continued towards the first island campsite on Meeds. We jumped island to island on the south chain and could then see the landing for the camp site (Camp 617). At this point there were considerable white caps and we decided get down on our knees to paddle over to the site, which ended up being a good decision. Approximately half way to the site PhuD's hat blew off and we had to turn around to get it. This was a little dicy but fortunately was completed without incident. With hat in tow we headed towards the campsite, ruttering and breaking to ensure as safe of landing as possible. We landed and found the campsite to be in fairly poor shape. The beavers have hit the woods hard, the latrine can be seen from the main sitting area and there was a fair amount of trash (wrappers and old instant coffee bags) strewn around the site. The wind out of the east blew up through the campsite which made even sitting by the fire cold. We had a dinner of vegetarian chili, did the dishes and headed to bed early with our spirits mildly dampened after a difficult day.