It was a beautiful morning and also very foggy. I could barely see across the lake. The fog slowly burned off and it was absolutely perfect weather by the time we left. The lake was glass all morning until minutes after we left around 9:30. We saw about where the other campsites were and realized ours was the best location of the sites around us because we were outside of that bay. We were sort of dreading the first portage because it was another longer one and our friend (who had given us the fois gras) had told us how much it sucked when he did it a few months earlier. It really didn’t seem all that bad other than the length. Our shoulders (especially mine) were sore from the previous days and that was really the only issue. 

Burnt was a nice lake but the water was very murky/green. We got to the Burnt/Smoke portage and there was a group there we had to wait for. We made it to the dock at the Smoke/Sawbill portage and had a bit of a tough time getting close enough to get out without sinking up to our necks in mud. We stayed clean and were soon headed off across Sawbill for our last several minutes in the b-dub. Claire actually shed a few tears because she was so sad we were leaving. 

Sawbill Lake was packed. I counted around 10 canoes in sight at one time. It looked like a lot of people were day tripping and/or out fishing. We pulled up around the far side of the dock to the rocks. I had the canoe up on the gravel on shore and as I was picking it up to head to the car, it was wet and slipped out of my hand and came crashing down. Of course the only time this has happened to me is right in front of a bunch of people. Returning our equipment was very easy and we were quickly on the road. We got to Sawbill right about noon and were on the road between 12:30 and 1. 

We pulled up to Castle Danger at 3:15. We ordered pizza from North Shore Cafe and it was really good. We had two beers each and were finally on our way at 4:30. A little longer stop than we wanted but it was nice outside and nice to relax on the deck. My parents watched our 20 month old and the dogs for the second two nights of our trip and were nice enough to bring them to our house for us, saving us an extra 2 hours of driving. 

~Kelly Lake, Burnt Lake, Smoke Lake, Sawbill Lake