The alarm goes off at 3:45 am and I have a quick breakfast of a granola bar, a pint of orange juice, a pint of chocolate milk and a couple of 20 oz bottles of water, I want plenty of fluids in me today, as it will be Lake Agnes before I can replenish my supply. I drive to the entry point and take the canoe off, put on my daypack, and a fanny pack and head to the water. About 100 yards into the portage, I come to the realization that this canoe will never again come to the BWCA on a solo with me!! I make the 160 rod portage put the canoe and gear down and head back to the truck for the rest of my gear. I prepare the truck for a weeks absence, put on the main pack and grab the rest of my loose items, depth finder, dip net with water bottles and leeches in a plastic bag, and a tackle pack. Again, about 100 yards into the portage I come to another realization… I have brought too much stuff!! But, I will take my time and go slow… It is 5:45 am when the beaver tail dips into the shallow water of the Moose River. Before long I switch to my spare paddle (foolishly to keep the beavertail beautiful) as the water is very shallow and I am scraping bottom with the canoe and hitting bottom on almost every paddle stroke. The river is alive with Sigurd Olsen’s white horses as they race up and down the narrow waterway… At the two 24 rod portages I triple for ease of lifting and carrying. I make it through the beaver dams although they had tried to repair them over night with only having to get out once. I reach a foggy Nina Moose lake and paddle across, it is 7:40 am as I pass the sandy beach on the north side which marks where the river exits the lake. Several minutes later I come to the 77 rod portage as one group is leaving, and another is carrying their gear across. The trail is blocked by 2 SR 18.5’s with more coming… Portage hogs… I manage to get to one side and start taking my gear out. As I lift the day pack out, my foot slips on a rock and I fall! Seemingly insignificant other than the embarrassment that accompanies such an action. I get all of my gear out and carry the canoe across, again thinking of taking my time and going slow, I make 3 trips…and I am starting to get tired! The slight twinge I feel in my foot is because of the fall and I think nothing of it thinking I will walk it out… Little did I know! As I am making the portage and stepping to the side to allow others to pass by, a limb pokes a hole in the plastic bag where my leeches are. Once across I grab a spare Nalgene bottle and empty the half pound of leeches into it with water. I make the short paddle to the 96 rod portage and decide I will double it no matter what! I make it passing others as they head out. As I reach the Agnes side I notice the wind is picking up, blowing from the north, northwest. Not a good sign solo and heading to Tiger Bay! I paddle the rest of the river though it is weed choked and with little current, much different than a year ago… I am being blown now by the wind, and it is difficult to keep the canoe headed into the wind as I follow the winding river course. When I reach Lake Agnes I see small whitecaps blowing toward me and I tell myself… just keep paddling steadily, stroke after stroke, I will make it! It takes me an hour and a half to paddle the mile and a half to reach the campsite where Satchmoa had base camped. It was empty and I had had enough! I would stop here! While not exhausted I was very tired from the added distances from triple portaging and fighting the wind, and I had no desire to battle Lac La Croix today, as tired as I was! I land the canoe on this beautiful site, the one closest to the 115 rod portage to the Boulder River and unload the gear. First the tent, get it up! Then unroll the Thermarest, loft up the Kelty, put everything else in its place… no tarp yet, I may move tomorrow! As I prepare everything a canoe from across the bay comes close and I take time to ask about the fishing. It is a young couple from Brainerd MN, they would become my friends over the course of the next five days. They ask where I am from and I tell them Arkansas, and they ask, “Are you Arkansas Man?” and I say yes! I have a lunch of summer sausage, cheese and crackers as we talk about the board and other topics before they continue on fishing. When they leave I return to my pack to find the little red furry pest have been after my bagels and have eaten parts of several! I break off the parts they have chewed on and give them to them which immediately starts a fight between them! I take the rest of my food and hang it where they cannot get to it. I then hang the hammock for some much needed rest! The lack of good sleep over the past few days and the physical exertion have wore me out and I feel the need to rest this afternoon. It was after 11:00 when I landed, it is now after 12:00 when I finally climb into the hammock… my plan is to sleep until dinner. Those plans changed when I am awakened at 2:45 by one of the “pest” as he sinks his tiny claws into my shoulder as he jumps onto the hammock where I am laying… oh well might as well get up and try to catch a fish and use some of the leeches which I had plenty of. The young man at V North was generous and I am sure I have more than a pound rather than the half I had ordered. There is nothing near camp wanting a leech floating under a cork. I stop fishing and go to gather firewood of which there is an abundance of dead wood, yet someone had cut two live pine trees! Why, I don’t know… People do strange things! I have a small fire that night as I prepare my dinner of chicken soup with wild rice, dried peas, onions and jalapenos to be eaten with crackers… mighty tasty! I go to bed early, having decided to stay at this site until Tuesday, when I will move to Tiger Bay in preparation of meeting my friends Thursday at Bottle Portage! I make sure the fire is out and retire to the tent. After climbing into my sleeping bag I read the small New Testament I have brought with me for this purpose, say my prayers and go to sleep listening to the sounds of the night.