So far, the weather had been progressively getting better each day. And, that streak was definitely upheld today. It’s always a luxurious pleasure to be able to pack dry gear away on travel days.

Our lone portage of the day, to Clearwater Lake, would be a fairly tough one. Since time constraints wouldn’t be a factor, I decided to take it easy & triple this one. Once everything was across, we climbed back up to the top of the portage where the B-R-T intersects. We took the eastern fork (there is also an overlook up the west fork, which we did not hike to on this trip.) and hiked up to yet another fantastic overlook. Vickie even discovered a perfect sized (for her) hiking stick to help her along.

Mountain, Clearwater & Watap lakes could all be viewed, as well as the unique profile of the Mountain lake shoreline, which has an area that kind of looks like the Florida peninsula. After soaking up some sunshine & the incredible scenery, we headed back down to grab a campsite on Clearwater.

IMHO the site just west of the portage is the primo site on the lake. It was unoccupied, so we paddled over. There is a nice landing with an expansive open area for the canoe & gear. The fire grate is situated, somewhat precariously, on a high knob with a fantastic eastern view down the lake. Several pine duffed areas for tents pads were available, (though none are entirely flat or free of obstructions). A nice mature stand of pines provided shelter & several tarp options. There’s even some trail’s that stretch around the shoreline in both directions. So much like the weather, our campsite situation had steadily improved throughout the trip as well. Vickie was especially happy with the large comfortable sitting rocks overlooking the lake, as this was her favorite site of the whole trip.

Even though we were in no great rush, camp had gone up fairly quickly. Since we’d had a very short travel day, there was a lot of day light left once the immediate chores had been completed. With that in mind, (for the first time on the trip), I dug out the hammock & found an ideal spot to hang it down near the lake.

While this was not a particularly overly aggressive trip mileage wise, we had traversed some of the toughest portages in all of the BWCA. So, it felt good to finally be able to climb into the hammock & relax. There was just the right mixture of shade & sunlight coupled with an idyllic view down the lake, which proved to be the proper ingredients needed to melt away the accumulated strain on old sore muscles.

For the most part, there was no real agenda, the rest of the day was spent just relaxing & taking it easy. This provided me the idle time & opportunity to come to a, almost embarrassing, realization. As I lounged peacefully in the hammock, it became obvious that my level of contentment had (at least for these few brief moments) reached its’ zenith, I was literally living a recurring daydream I’d had prior to the trip. All I could think was, “I am not worthy of such good fortune.”

As the sun was setting, we sat ahead of the camp fire watching trout perpetually surface out on the, nearly mirrored, surface of the lake. A couple of beavers seemed intent on the goings on here in camp and swam by curiously checking us out. After we’d gone to bed, Vickie had heard one of them return & it began chewing on a nearby tree. Sleep didn’t come easily, as she was certain a tree was eventually going to fall on us. Happily, no such disaster occurred.

Mountain Lake, Clearwater Lake