Adrenaline day today. We had a quick granola breakfast and headed toward Gabimichigami. Mountain Goat really wanted to stay on Gabi and the site he wanted was open, but Bear and I were pumped up for taking the longer route and going to Ogishkemuncie. The winds were strong today, and hindsight would verify that we should have listened to the youngster and stopped on Gabi despite the short distance.

The crossing on Gabi was very windy and we never would have attempted it if we hadn't been 3 very experienced and strong paddlers. We worked really well as a team on the portages and single portaged most of them. Agamok Lake had no one camped on it. Hindsight is we should have stopped there, but sometimes your goal blinds you. As we arrived at the Ogish end of the portage, we were hit by a wall of wind. There was ugly weather to the north and south of us. The skies were extremely unsettled. We quickly headed up the east side of the lake looking for an open campsite. It was only just after 1 pm so we expected to find something. First one full, 2nd full, 3rd was empty but one of our maps said it was a closed site so we didn't stop. Next 3 sites were all full as well, and we could see the last 2 sites across the lake were full. WTH?! It is 1:30 pm on a Monday and everything is full!

By now the wind is getting crazy strong. As we turned southwest into the wind, a big cold gust front hit us. We kicked it into high gear with all three of us paddling at race level speed. We could see lightening forking between the clouds and should have been off the lake. As we passed a group of Scouts at their campsite, we heard "You sure look like you know what you are doing!" We saw them zigzag on Jasper the next day, so I can see why they thought we looked like pros with our in sync, straight line paddling. The thunder and lightening were getting too close. We pulled up to the site we suspected was closed and indeed it is. It is a huge site and is really close to another site. However, with the rain now coming down in sheets and the sky lit up with insane amounts of lightening, we had no choice but to stay. Shortly, a father and daughter pulled up. We talked with them about pulling off here too. They decided to try to hug the shore and continue, but quickly changed their minds and came back.

It was clear that this site still gets used regularly which tells me, Ogish is rather short of campsites. We found a full roll of toilet paper and a really good science fiction book in plastic bags that had recently been left behind. The weather remained unsafe well after dark so we minimized our impact as much as possible and left early the next morning.

~Little Saganaga Lake, Rattle Lake, Gabimichigami Lake, Agamok Lake, Mueller Lake, Ogishkemuncie Lake

Travel Time: 9:00am-1:45pm 4.75 hours