Morning coffee after a much warmer night.

The first 90 rod portage as we moved east back into the Phoebe River was no issue, but the next 5 rod portage required about 5 rods of bushwhacking on each side because of high water. The last two portages were easy with no issues.

As we arrived to the 285 rod portage from Grace to Beth we were greeted by a canoe from another group and a nice pile of snow on the portage. We met the group on their second trip and they informed us the Alton Lake had iced-out the day before and they had spent the last few days waiting it out on Kelso Lake. I warned them about the river/downed tree west of Knight and we finished the portage and ate lunch.

The paddle across Beth was nice with a breeze at our back and we also noticed snow at the east end. As we got closer, we also noticed some ice but we had no problems pulling into the landing. With a nice snow pile off to the side of the portage, we decided to make a snowman.

This portage was in better shape than most we encountered and we were soon headed up Alton Lake, hugging the west shore to stay out of the wind. Once we got to the peninsula south of the portage into Sawbill we crossed the middle and rounded the corner only to be greeted with a wall of ice. Though Alton was 95% out, all the remaining ice had been pushed to the east shore of the lake. A little spooked from remembering the couple found dead in their life jackets on Alton in 2011, I wasn't interested in getting between the ice and waves, so we decided to head up to Kelso and get to Sawbill via the Kelso River. The wind decided to kick up at that moment and we embarked on a scary crossing of Alton but quickly arrived on the west shore so we could paddle out of the wind up to the Kelso portage. The rest of the tripping was uneventful and we arrived at the Sawbill landing about 4 in the afternoon.

All in all, we had a good but challenging trip. We saw two moose, had some really nice weather, covered a ton of ground, and enjoyed our campsite on Malberg. Tipping and our ice detour certainly added a sense of accomplishment to the journey.