Up at 4:30 AM. Just couldn't get back to sleep. On the water by 6 on a short paddle to portage around lower basswood falls. Once I got my loads over I came back to photo the river and the huge erratic at the top of the falls. Love the erratics! Traveled the river and enjoyed the nice falls and short portages. Wheel barrow falls was also a cool area. The fall colors were really showing at this point! Another beautiful calm paddle. I got to upper basswood falls area and managed to miss the big long portage. I portaged along one fall and through a campsite and then ended up paddling up another rapid that I just barely made it up. The adrenaline was pumping after that. At the top of the rapid there was a wire with an old wood basket hanging between the US and Canada side? Maybe for logging? At this point I was a little confused. I was sitting below upper basswood falls but somehow I skipped the long portage. My nat geo map worked fine for this trip but it does lack some detail and showed a bunch of different portages. I end up going to the campsite and sure enough out the back of the campsite right next to the latrine there is a portage that connected me to the long portage I missed earlier. The missed portage probably saved me 200 rods!!! I didn't spend much time at upper BW falls because I really thought the lower falls were prettier. I was finally on Basswood Lake! I got the fishing rods out and trolled for the first time that day. Caught a pike within 5 minutes. A little later I hooked a nice bass. Then I ran into another huge pike and same story, got her to the boat and she pulled the hook. I went south into Jackfish bay. Looking at a map can not prepare you for the size of this water! I got to my proposed site on an island in Jackfish bay but after looking at how big the water was I thought it may be best to keep pushing just in case the wind came up over night. I didn't want to get wind bound. I was halfway into Jackfish bay and had the option of back tracking to Pipestone bay or taking the 87 rod portage and save the paddle. I had even heard you can float through if the water is up??? Well the water wasn't up high enough and the trail doesn't appear to get used much. Down logs and mud holes. Took my first spill of the trip with the canoe. Went down on one knee but kept the canoe up. Thank god it only weighs 30 lbs, the old Grumman would have crushed me! Finally made Pipestone bay but couldn't find a site I was that excited about. I ended up paddling much further than planned and took the site across from the portage to Newton lake. I decided later this was a mistake. You can just feel the close proximity to civilization. In hindsight I should have stayed further out. But it shortened my last day's paddle considerably. I caught some nice bass and pike that evening and didn't even mess with a fire.

13.5 miles traveled. 350 rods.