Tuesday, May 23, 2017 We were able to sleep in pretty late the first morning and once we awoke we lit up my MSR whisperlite to make some oatmeal. The sky was overcast, almost exact conditions like the day before, but as we had breakfast one of the strangest things happened. As we scarfed down the delicious oatmeal I heard a loon calling out on the lake and didn’t think much of it. It wasn’t until out of the corner of my eye, where I saw a big brown and white blur swooping down towards the lake, when my attention was caught. The blur turned out to be a bald eagle, and this eagle had seemed to have targeted the loon or maybe a fish the loon had. After all, the bald eagle flew away, and the loon appeared to be in good shape after this quick, but unusual event. Once we finished breakfast my brother casted a few lines off the shore. As we stood on the shore line we noticed something. The day before when we explored the site we found some scat, which we concluded to be bobcat or lynx scat, on the shore line next to some feathers. Again, given we were in the woods, and that is where animals live, we did not think much of this find. But that morning when we were on the shore line we had noticed that the scat that was there the day before had disappeared, and there was new pile of scat within a few feet of the prior. I have a feeling the mystery of what exactly happened to the first pile of scat will trouble me (with some laughs) for quite some time, but it was pretty cool that a bobcat or lynx had been sneaking through our camp without us knowing. After lunch of a peanut-butter and bagel we hopped in the canoe and made our way back east across the lake to the 267 rod portage from West Pike to Pine Lake. This portage was basically through a stream which made for a wet and muddy walk. I remember reading on here (bwca.com) that this portage was particularly rough, but once we finished we both agreed to disagree with the review of this portage being a complete disaster--you just have to be willing and able to get your feet wet. We finished the portage just as a father and daughter were preparing to make their trip through the portage. The nine or ten year old girl first spoke up, and asked me, “Is it long?” with a tone as though she was a bit intimidated with what her father may have told her about it. I then replied saying, “It’s not to long, but you are going to get your feet wet.” After saying that she looked down at her feet, just as my brother and I did. All three of us were staring at a pair of spotless purple Nike running shoes. After that chat my brother talked to the father, and somewhere in the conversation I overheard the father pronounce portage (pordij) as (portaaj). I wondered if he was trying to make a joke, or if he was just new to the lingo of the boundary waters. Either way we wished them well and we moved onto the calm lake awaiting to be paddled. We eventually made it to campsite #735 on Pine Lake. This is where a gray jay was hopping around from branch to branch on a small red pine seeming to meet and greet us to our home for the next couple of nights. We checked out the site, and in no time we had found the few tent pads that were flat, and set up our sleeping arrangements. We then had a dinner of rice & pinto beans, nothing special, but it did fill our stomachs. After some time the gray jay that had greeted us left and then returned with three friends of his own which made some of the funkiest calls I have heard come out of a bird. They were interesting, and seemed to be interested in us for a moment until they slowly hovered from tree to tree retreating back deeper into the woods. Before bedtime we enjoyed a fire and the night sky with a Pine Lake cocktail, and wondered the condition of the young girl's pair of shoes.