Day 2 & 3 - Monday, Tuesday (9/2 - 9/3/2019) I had mentioned to the group that it would be good to get on the water at first light and suggested a time. As I said, as the organizer, I don't want to dictate things. All the group except for JS and son were ready at a reasonable time. They had started a fire and were messing around. When they were ready to go, they were going to leave the fire smoldering away. What? That's not something I could let go, so I mentioned we don't do that and set about carrying several loads of water to the fireplace and doused it and mixed it all up with a stick. My nephew pitched in, and between us were satisfied and were now able to leave.

We paddled across North Bay, past the channel going into Lost Bay, and came across the reeds guarding the creek/area going toward portage 5584. We had to pick a path through the weeds though it turns out most of them appeared to go to the same area. We pulled the canoe over an old beaver dam then had to do a bit more work to get the canoe over a maintained dam. While the water was relatively shallow and a bit mucky, my paddle buddy and I thought it was all very cool. Right after that, we went through an area that was backed up by the dams. Luckily Mikey and I had worked on trimming out our boat as that enabled us to drag very little.

At the end of portage 5584, there is a tiny pond created by a three-foot (out of the water) beaver dam. You could either put your stuff in the canoe and float over to the dam and then cross it, or continue to portage around it and finish on the other side. All but JS decided to just portage all the way around it. JS and his son re-packed their canoe and paddled over to the base of the beaver dam. JS then had his son lift the bow of the canoe to the top of the beaver dam THEN HE STARTED TO CLIMB FROM THE STERN TO THE BOW. The middle of the canoe had NO SUPPORT and was in the air. Just as he approached the center and climbed over the yoke, and as I started to say, "STOP YOU DUMB-ASS!" I heard CRACK! The yoke exploded, and the canoe bent to a 45-degree angle. Yep, that happened. The canoe bent until the back half was supported by the water, and the front half was at the same angle as the beaver dam. The canoe slammed into the water, and I turned and watched everybody mouth (silently) "WTF..." The yoke had come entirely off the canoe, and I picked it up. It was very dry and brittle. If it were better maintained MAYBE, it would have held, and he would have gotten away with his idiotic feat. Maybe not. Either way, he now had a custom shaped canoe. Remarkably, the canoe was intact with no leakage or obviously damaged crease. I don't know if I would have continued or not, but on they went. We just shook our heads and went onward. FYI they had to double up on carrying the canoe on portages, one in the front and one in the back. Also, when they were the water, the bow was up out of the water due to the crease in the middle, and if it weren't so damn sad, it would have been funny.

See the photos below? It doesn't quite capture how bent the canoe is when people are in it and on the water.

The small unnamed lake we were now on looked like it would be a great fishing spot. It also looked like in buggy weather you would be eaten alive.

We decided, using the advice of bwca.com and our outfitter, to not to try to use the creek going into Isabella. We had difficulting finding portage 5577 as it's off a bit on the maps. I climbed out of the canoe and slogged through the reeds to try and find the portage, and eventually, JS hollered over that he has located it. It's really close to Isabella creek so I dropped a waypoint on my GPS device to update my records. This portage was basically up and down with some rocks but not terribly challenging.

Though these portages were not overwhelming, I noticed the group was starting to show signs of wear. It's evident that as a group, we were not ready for our adventure. The main concern I had was that we were not even at our final destination. We were headed towards McIntyre Lake! If we were to continue until the end, the group would have been in pain. And ... once we got there late in the day, we would be there for a few nights then would have to continue. The group was NOT having fun and was actually struggling. I quickly thought about the rest of the trip and then suggested that we get to Isabella Lake and find the first campsite we liked, and stop. There was some grumbling as nobody wanted to impact the trip I had laid out for us, but I insisted it wasn't essential to get an arbitrary spot. The group basically agreed.

The last portage out of no-name into Lake Isabella was what finished the group off. It was strewn with large rocks and a few tricky areas heading uphill. After finishing that, we had to do a mix of going through some mud to then climbing up the bank to get to a trail. This area would have been underwater if the water level was higher. Mikey and I kind of liked all this as we knew we were getting further along the trail and things like this are what kept groups from going onward. It's probably exponential on the groups that drop out or don't attempt to go farther. Each lake and portage eliminates a certain amount and type of person.

It eliminated our group.

When we were done, and the group knew we were stopping, the mood lifted. This site (and emails) had let me know that campsite XP was our best bet, so we headed there. XP was adequate, so we set up camp. I started to give consideration on how to change our trip to better suit the group.

While my nephew went fishing, I contemplated our trip and the group. I then went to the fire ring and told them I thought we should stay at the existing campsite for two nights and then head back to North Bay for the remaining three nights. We should look at some sites near the channel into Lost Bay as it looked like exciting fishing. We had spoken about this area already. We threw ideas around for a bit then agreed we would do what was suggested.

My nephew caught a beautiful mess of smallmouth bass, and we had fish so fresh I felt like passing out. It was that good.

Just as the evening was winding down, it started to rain. It rained fairly steadily through the night and until about noon the next day. While this was a bit boring, it gave some of the group an excellent rest.

After we all got out of our hammocks, most of us set about doing camp chores. It became more evident that JS's son was simply not going to do much unless told to. The group started to make comments, and JS worked extra to make up for his son, but only minimally made his son do things. The odd thing is, if I asked his son to do something, he did it. I know he's a high school kid and we are all adults, and he may be a bit intimidated, but I could tell he was going out of his way only minimally to do what was asked of him.

As the day went on, I felt the effects of not being a group that did this together. We didn't have "jobs" that we naturally (or otherwise) fell into. We were loosely organized. I was not able to sit in my chair and relax for more than a few minutes at a time due to the group needing something. I wasn't the only one doing this, of course, but it was still a bit taxing. This all improved as the week progressed.

Later in the evening, I brought my maps to the group to confirm the following day's plans and to suggest that we hit the water at 7 am, as I knew we would have enough daylight to deal with the muddy and rocky portage we would be doing first. JS would consistently cut into the conversation about something that was barely relevant, so I started to ignore him. If he began to talk I could just keep going, and then I said "Well that's what I'm doing, who's in?" and my BIL agreed and all was well.

JS is my BIL's friend. They have been around each other so long that what JS does isn't an issue. However, my BIL knew that JS's way of interacting was beginning to wear on the group. We spoke about it a few times. I attempted to modify how I brought information to the group so JS could stay on track, but I was mostly unsuccessful the entire trip. From this point on, I was more direct when he was around, and we had to make a decision. BIL was also more direct in what he wanted to minimize JS. I appreciated BIL for that.