One reason I often lead trips is because (as leader) I get to plan the food as well. No crummy freeze dried packets when you hike with me. This time however, I decided to try some new food. We had a full 5 days provisions of Cache Lake foods (a mixed bag of failure and success). We cooked up a hot breakfast for 2, and wished we had not. The breakfast we had chosen neither of us could stomach. Looking back I think it is the leeks that added a certain special flavor that neither of us could stand. So we packed the uneaten and now heavy food away, munched a few "emergency" granola bars and hit the trail.

One huge worry I had were reports of the trail often being hard to follow, especially in the BWCA portion. Not an issue at all for us. Even where the thimble berries had completely grown over the trail, it was still easy to follow.

As much of a pain as it was to get water the night before, I must admit that starting out the days hike from the TOP of the hill is so much more relaxing than facing a big climb first thing. Our hike was absolutely stunning. We moved through fields of berries, stands of pine and spruce with wide open space below, thick tangles of trees and underbrush, and the occasional scenic vista.

By mid morning we started down the long slope to the portage between West Pike and Pine lakes. And that is where things started to go wrong. Somehow I must have twisted my knee because the pain was excruciating. The climb from that portage and the subsequent hike to Gogebic lake was some of the most challenging I have encountered, and not just because my knee hurt.

We made good time still, and reached the campsite at Gogebic just after noon some time. Don't know exactly because I believe watches have no place in the wilderness except as a backup compass. The campsite offered a good place to water up and eat lunch. Yoder and I discussed our trip plan and decided to press on to our planned site a couple miles away on Clearwater Lake.

The stretch from Gogebic to Clearwater was easy from a hill and cut path perspective, but it did offer us our first real navigational challenge. A criss cross of portage and hiking trails in the area (not all of them "official" or on the map) took us sightly off course. We corrected, and soon a pile of stones alerted us to the first campsite on clearwater. Part of the challenge was the guidebook for the BRT was written hiking in the opposite direction. Some of the references were "15 minutes after you pass..." So of course we were faced with finding the landmark 15 minutes after we passed out destination. So we were grateful for that little pile of stones..

We set up camp and made dinner, This time the Cache Lake meal was decent. The frying pan bread is going to be a permanent part of my trail menu from now on. Yoder thankfully is of that human garbage disposal age, where teen age boys do not care what they eat, just that there is a lot of it. So thankfully there were no dinner leftovers. To deal with lunch leftovers, we cooked them a bit, and then we had a small fire, and set the leftovers on the grate to cook out the water.

It was then that a couple canoeing pulled up to the site. They could handle the canoe, but were obvious BWCA rookies. The campsite was large enough for a group of 20 with room to spare, and secluded tent pads. Rules or no, we invited them to share the campsite. It was getting dark, and these were first timers. They had scouted other campsites, and it was here or on to the next lake.

They set up on a large tent pad about 50 ft away from us. We did offer to share our fire and food, but were declined. So, to respect their desire for solitude, Yoder and I talked quietly for a while, then just after dark extinguished the fire and retired to our tents.

A quick bit here about sleeping. I slept like a baby. I did not wake at all during the night. There was a time that the worst thing for me and camping was all the times I woke up in the night. I never slept well. Turns out I had (have) sleep apnea. After a while I did some of my own research and read about weight and apnea. For other reasons than apnea, I dropped 30 pounds. I've done some bouncing around with my weight but when I am down, I sleep. When my weight is up, I don't sleep so well and my wife doesn't either from the snoring.