Day 1 - We experience a recovery, a setback, and the girlfriends patience is put to the limit

530 alarm, and the two adults awake feeling much more capable. A quick review of the mess left shows that we really aren't that far from being prepared to leave, but that sleeping pads will need to be rented while doing one last check of planned route with Jason. Plans made, we head to Brittons for breakfast. It was amazing, though I failed to mention the reported overly large portions, and we are left with a significant amount of pancake. The girlfriend, resourceful as ever, recognizes that we have exactly enough for a first mornings breakfast, so a box full becomes a baggie full, one less serving of oatmeal. The rest of the morning moves pleasantly along, last minute groceries bought, pads acquired, fishing spots marked, fishing licenses and leeches procured. Finally we pack and are off, hitting the EP at the not quite so early hour of 11 AM.

It is here, loading canoes against a steady stream of paddlers returning that our hero perhaps got overanxious to get on the water and rushed us off the put-in. (An aside here, to the gentleman who felt so inclined to comment about our having everything but the kitchen sink, and to paraphrase an AT saying, paddle your paddle. I will admit to being a bit unorganized, and it turns out we were carrying a bit too much gear, but we did not interfere with you getting off the water, you were able to move with the practiced efficiency that we would later attain. Thank you for making our first actual BWCA interaction so pleasant and memorable. And to be honest I was carrying a kitchen sink, perhaps my favorite new piece of LNT gear.) As a result, we paddle out in two less than ideally balanced canoes. I paddle into a lush and beautiful scene to discover that girlfriend and younger child have managed to turn an 18' canoe backwards in a channel that only appears to be 12' wide. They are less amused by this observation, and want to know how we are going to fix this paddling dilemma. After an on water child swap, and a short tow, we reach enough solid land to properly rebalance boats.

And so we set off, finally paddling and enjoying some truly glorious scenery. Our hero prepares to begin navigating in earnest, putting the map at his feet and reaching for the compass to begin plotting the path to Horse Lake. "Baby," he calls, "Did you see the compass?"

She sighs, she bites her tongue and simply makes it clear that perhaps our intrepid group could use a reset. And so we make camp on Mudro, after less than 10 minutes of functional paddling. It is a glorious afternoon. The boys first feed many a leech to the fish population, and then our hero catches the first fish. Quickly the boys figure out fishing with leeches and more are caught. They are small, not walleyes and so unworthy of our shore lunch and Crisco, but we enjoy the afternoon. We also discover another reason not to keep what we're catching, we forgot to bring a stringer. Despite the setbacks this far, we are so grateful to be here. The day quickly catches up to us and we are early to bed, sleeping soundly under a less than dark sky.