Clove to Ottertrack From Clove we headed north to Sag. Light winds increased as we approached Sag from the Northwest. Bear scat full of berries along the way, and despite it being the Sunday before labor day, we found tons of blueberries in their prime at the end of the devil’s elbow portage! Only place we saw them in full force on the trip. Sag met us with a cross wind of course. Lunch at Loon Island and then decided to peek at the lake through the Munker gap. Whitecaps, right to left with the wind shifting more to the NE. Went out in them to see how bad it was, and had to turn around. Our options were to wait for evening and lose 5 hours of paddling, or try a frontal attack from English Island to the South. We strapped everything in, put on our lifejackets and with the water being unseasonably warm, gave it a shot straight into solid three-footers. But she handled the waves well and we only had a little over a mile to make to American Point. We were able to keep the nose into the waves and only had three waves clearly break over the bow. Our reward was a slight tail wind as we passed Cache bay and into Swamp and the monument Portage. We felt good so decided to keep going down Ottertrack (saw the Ben Ambrose memorial) to the far west end. Cold NE wind kept the bugs at bay. Rolled in about 7:15 and hit the hay a couple hours later. Big lesson learned on this day was that even though we were trying to make really good time, we were best served by reasonable frequent breaks with food. A larger early afternoon meal kept us in good shape and spirits. Plenty of fuel BEFORE tackling a long stretch is the key. Early, we had food as a reward for finishing a tough stretch – we had it backwards in the first few days. By day four, the back and shoulders no longer grew tired by themselves. Instead, our ability to continue to power through was a product of whether we had enough fuel in the tank. When it ran low, there was just no more energy, and you could feel the grumpiness and fatigue take over. When we saw that coming, we just pulled over, stretched, ate a snack, drank plenty of water, and we felt great again.