Day 2 - We learn portaging is really, really hard

An early night and a late morning makes for well rested campers. In short we feel good. We make coffee and discuss our options. Somehow we have set off without a compass but we feel confident that the simplicity of our route will allow us to navigate by geographic features. The skillet becomes the perfect pancake rewarmer, and we discover that Brittons pancakes are almost as good the second day.

As we prepare to set out, we take a bit more time and better plan our weight distribution, and thus we make good time across the short amount of Mudro that still lay before us. And so we reach what had been labeled for us Heart Attack Hill, but that we would be going down it on the outbound path. Encouraged by our quick paddle, the two adults hoist canoes and start the trek. Holy Crap. I have hiked with packs as heavy as 65 lbs. but nothing really prepared me for the awkwardness of carrying a canoe over a rocky, narrow trail. We double portage, the walk back and even the return with the pack being ever so much more pleasant, but this is what we signed up for, we are strong, we will master this.

And we're moving now, making quick work of Sandpit lake, and we hoist canoes for the half mile portage into Tin Can Mike. We make it, but spirits are a bit low, girlfriend is not a fan of portaging. After a quick lunch we start to load up. It is at this point that the boys hit their first obstacle, it can be really tough to get 150 yards from the water for a bathroom break, unlike in the forests we are more used to. I point out that there is a campsite very near on Tin Can Mike, and if they can just make it there, a bathroom break would be far easier. We head off for a pit stop. The older boy returns to the boats exclaiming the virtues of the spot. He slips seamlessly into real estate agent mode, attempting to sell us on this spot. The girlfriend is not hard to convince, it has one very important aspect; location that requires no more portaging for the day. And so we make camp. Two days and three lakes; we may not be setting a fast pace, but we are enjoying ourselves.

Fishing quickly commences, first from the canoe, but the boys quickly decide they prefer fishing from shore, so we return to the campsite. Lots of little bluegill and the older boy gets a bite from something larger. He exhibits more patience than has been witnessed in a long while and eventually lands a good sized largemouth bass. He is excited, despite the fact that there are bass galore back home, this is the largest he has caught to date. He wants to keep it, but I am determined that we will catch walleye, and so we return him.

That evening we make a plan, we will forgo the more ambitious plan we had, and take a daytrip into Horse and up to Basswood falls and a chance to paddle to Canada, and spend some time fishing on the return. We feel that traveling light will keep us moving more efficiently, and we will make better progress than we had our first two days. With visions of the walleye swarming Horse, I get creative and some paracord and a little knife work later, we are ready for our limit with a homemade stringer. Plans and tools made, we crash early again.