September 8-13, 2018

* Route Overview *

The route we planned to take would show me scenery similar to that of the June trip also through Knife, but this time we went north. We planned to push to SAK on the first day (from the Sucker portage), then get to Cherry the next day, stay on Cherry for days 2-6, then head back down and stay on Knife on day 7 before heading out on day 8. Due to reports of possible severe thunderstorms for 2-3 days in a row on the latter half of our trip (thanks weather radio!) we decided to spend only 3 nights on Cherry before heading back down to stay on west Knife on day 5, and headed out on day 6.

* Route Duration *

PP says 37.7mi, my Garmin track says 41.2mi which is right considering areas where we made a mistake. Getting to Knife took us about 4 hours on the dot, just like in June. Getting to the SAK took us about another 4, landing us at our camp at 5:30pm, which was later than we had hoped. We didn’t have a crazy headwind but also no tailwind. Every site we could see, except for 1 we checked which was not a good site, was taken. W&H told us we should be even more isolated than the early June trip, which was the opposite in the end – I saw a lot of people in Sept, more than June. The travel up to Cherry took longer than expected because we missed a turn when looking for the portage from SAK, and the Knife-Amoeber portage was mismarked on the Fisher map so we wasted an hour looking for it (in an admittedly beautiful area however). The paddle from Cherry down Little Knife and NAK was excellent on a cloudy windless day in the mid 60s, trolling the whole way. The exit from Knife was not bad, except for finding an alternate portage around Seed (I think) leading us along a path we didn’t recognize, where we ultimately found the right path. We also had a strong headwind on the paddle back down Carp and Birch, but thankfully it was almost directly in our faces, and we didn’t have many whitecaps, so we just powered through it and were still 2 hours early for the tow.

* Route Difficulty *

I would say this route would be fine for beginner to intermediate types as far as difficulty and endurance go, as long as you prepare for a long paddle down to the SAK or stop earlier on Knife, and prepare for one or two hilly portages (Knife-Amoeber was the worst of the route and it could have been a lot worse I think). There is some big water that requires care when dealing with wind, but it's not too bad. There are also no really difficult portages as long as you stay away from Cherry-Hanson. Wind will be a limiting factor on Knife as it was for my group in June.

* Trip Log *

I will be transcribing and paraphrasing what I wrote in my journal during the trip, but also elaboration/reflection after the fact. I didn’t write for the final 2 days, so I’ll be filling that in from memory.