Wednesday, August 23, 2017 We decided to compromise the next day by not staying 2 days on Long Island, but leaving after lunch instead, counting on Cherokee being just as sparse as before. The trip back was easy and warm enough that the boys played in the water a bit at the Cherokee portage before we headed to site 897. From across the lake, we could see another couple heading into the site so we knew we were out of luck. The boys checked out site 898 but turned it down (we had become spoiled) before heading to site 891. What another beautiful site! I don’t think we can go back to the BWCA without hitting Cherokee Lake again as we couldn’t get over the views. There was a nice supply of firewood here and the 12yo immediately started cutting more wood. He had really taken to this job and I was so happy to have a task that I didn’t have to worry about. Then the 9yo surprised us by starting the fire himself AND cooking us dinner. Wow, so even though every portage he seems to carry less and less and become more and more exhausted with just the weight of the paddles and life jackets, at least he can make fire and boil water on a stove. I had also insisted that he navigate from day 1 even though he didn’t know how to read a map, and by day 3 I only questioned his directions half the time and he could find north, so I shouldn’t be so hard on him.