Sunday, June 19, 2016 Barely slept a wink, every noise was (of course) a bear. Mosquitoes up north are quite a thing! It's kind of like having your own cordless white noise maker... Raining today. Set out and fished the upper end of Dore, smallmouth were amazing. Loads of pike too. Every fish was so strong, I don't think we caught a smallie under 15". Stopped for a pike shorelunch in a little cove and to wait out the lightening. I was starting to get a feel for things now despite having spent a lot of time in a canoe to practice for this over the past 2 years. After lunch decided to get on our way. We ran into a troop of Boy Scouts going our way at the southern portage as the rain let up. At this point, we decided there was NO WAY they were going to get to our camp site on Upper Sturgeon (this is important to remember). So off we go down the portage. Another important point... Shane had said there may be "several beaver dams to portage over on the Deux" .... OK. So through the first Twin lake, buggy. Into the second, we're looking for a creek on the right. Off we go... creek starts getting small, but look! A beaver dam! Up and over. And a 2nd dam! Up and over. Hmm, I thought the Deux would be going down stream, but we are going up stream... Creek getting smaller, 2 more dams... Was that a snapping turtle? Biggest turtle I have EVER SEEN! Creek becomes impassable, now a mud flat. OK, where is the trail? Long story short, we hike through the muddy moose swap to a tree line, find another creek, go back and pull all our gear through that, only to find another (impenetrable) tree line. At this point, it hits me. We are lost. And overheating... in a swamp. A short panic moment, lets make some Gatorade. Hats in the water and then on your head, cool off. 30 min rest in the canoe... no more nice guy. Off go the sandals and on go the boots. It is going to take some horsepower to undo this mess! But we did it (thank God). Another rest at the beaver dams during the lightning storm. We called this "Shit creek" and I suggest you avoid it! Finally back onto Twin, found the Deux. Very nice creek. Saw plenty of water fowl and right as we round the bend to Upper Sturgeon, there stands A HUGE BULL MOOSE in the middle of the creek...  So, he wandered off when he had his fill of us. Made it onto Upper Sturgeon just as we were losing the light, to the island, by some miracle the camp site is unoccupied! Bingo. Setup camp, ate and called it a night. 5.3 miles paddling.