Friday, July 18, 2014 Awake at 4:30, as I genuinely feel it's worth it to be up that early in the wilderness. The calm serenity of a morning in the BWCA is unequaled in my mind. I love watching the sun come up! This day would prove to be my most ambitious traveling day of the trip, even though the miles don't look that impressive. Started the day with the little portage out of the northeast end of Cherokee in to Town Lake. Easy enough. Things got rough from there! The 102 rod portage in to Vesper lake threw everything at me: poor footing, sloppy, varying terrain, steep, and swarms of mosquitos. I've carried a head net and little bottle of Ben's 100 for years. Rarely used either. This portage had me using both! The 72 rod portage in to Gasket lake was equally challenging. Very difficult, but oh so rewarding. That little Gasket lake is one of the most awesomely beautiful places I've been on this planet. Towering cliffs to the East, and a boulder-strewn scree field on the West. I would have been happy to stay there forever. Alas, as tough as the 45 rod portage out of there was it maybe wouldn't have been such a bad idea to stay there forever! That little stretch was a real bear. Stepped from boulder to boulder the first half, then waded gingerly through knee deep water while trying to not get sucked in to waist (or armpit?) deep mud. The things we do for fun! That Cam lake is very pretty too, and the 93 rod portage from there in to Brule is a steep ascent/descent but a fairly decent trail.    It was pushing noon by now, and the wind had come up stiff out of the South, so my introduction to Brule was a little tricky with small whitecaps slapping up against the bow of the canoe. I paddled around the far West end of Brule, and found all three of the campsites to be occupied. I had thought about stopping at one either for lunch or the night, depending on what sort of site I found. I paddled out of Brule on the west end in to South Temperance, and was a little unnerved as to how close to the rapids the portage is! No danger, just a bit of a white-knuckler. Had a nice lunch of tuna salad wraps and Gorp, before paddling on to South Temperance. Found the 5-star campsite on the giant rock point at the South side of the lake to be open and the absolute perfect place to set up camp for the night. Had all I could do to stay up until the sun went down, as the days portaging and paddling in to the wind had taken a healthy toll on me. I was exhausted, but felt great!