We were out to catch fish, and since we hadn’t found much the first day, we decided to break camp (we had considered base camping here) and heading for greener pastures. A quick breakfast of oatmeal and coffee/hot chocolate got us going, and as we took to the water, we were greeted by a stunningly beautiful day. Rain jackets were traded for suntan lotion as we headed toward Little Gabbro Lake. We considered taking the 122-rod portage, but decided instead to to around and take the two small portages shown on the McKenzie Map. Big mistake. Sure, we hammered the pike and also caught some nice smallmouth, and our first walleye, in the rapids just west of the main portage. But after taking the first small portage, we found another one not marked on the map. The water was too shallow to canoe across, so we ended up with another portage that was 10 times tougher than what we had expected, stumbling over exposed tree roots that were suspended a foot off the ground while trying to step over logs that were 3 feet higher still. Once we got through this portage, we had another small carry around a little dam, and even past that, the water was too shallow to canoe, so we had to walk the canoe up the river, all the while fighting to keep our footing on the slippery rocks that always managed to roll when you put your weight on them. Of course, the leaches swimming past our ankles just added to the charm. We got into Little Gabbro much later than we had anticipated because of the added time it took to get through the portages, so we didn’t spend much time here. We made a few casts, but mostly pushed right through to Gabbro Lake. We began looking for an open campsite, and didn’t find one until we were two-thirds of the way down the lake. We found an open site on the southwest shore, on a small peninsula, looking southeast. This was by far the best site of our trip: a sandy landing spot, a very gradual rocky slope going down to the water, and a rock table set up waste-high for cooking, etc. We had kept several pike and a walleye for dinner, so after setting out our tents, rain flies, etc. to dry from the previous night, we had a nice dinner of fish and Zatteran’s. We also mixed up some tang and Captain Morgan’s Parrot’s Bay coconut rum, which was great, even lukewarm. After a long day, we didn’t last long, into the tents by 10 p.m.