Today we saw Kingfishers, loons w/ babies, and plenty of adorable of chipmunks. The portages out of Paulson all climb up steeply. This is definitely Mountain Goat's home territory. We would pull up to a landing and Bear and I would say, "Another one for the Mountain Goat to carry the canoe!" In reality, we did each take a turn on carrying the canoe and we were able to single portage all of these, though sometimes we had Mountain Goat take it up the initial incline.

The portage from Glee to Bingshick follows the Kekekabic Trail for awhile and it was really, really muddy. We reached Bingshick and both campsites were empty. The first site was hard to see, and the 2nd site look nice but we didn't stop. Both short portages out of Bingshick were flooded from beaver action. All of the mentioned portages would be very challenging to find if coming from the other direction. You have to travel through very narrow, long channels in the Labrador Tea to reach them.

As we popped up top of the 15 rod portage into Flying Lake, 2 canoes appeared...first people we had seen since leaving Paulson. Beautiful little wood/canvas canoes. The folks in them had come from Brant and had been struggling to find the 90 rod portage into Fay Lake. The sea of Labrador Tea was making it impossible for them to spot. They finally gave up and opted to drop into Green Lake instead.

All of the lakes through this area are gorgeous with stunningly beautiful cliffs. But the portages are steep, rocky and muddy. The staircase portage into Gotter actually had a tiny gravel landing spot because water levels were so low, but we were still very happy we didn't meet up with any other groups on that portage. The portage from Gotter into Brant is listed as 88 rods on some maps and 103 rods on the Voyager map. Voyager map is more accurate. The portage starts out nice but then gets to be very steep with lots of twists and turns which were a challenge with the 20 foot canoe. Then it drops steeply into Brant. But it was still better footing and path than the earlier portages of the day.

Brant was empty when we arrived so we were able to get the cliff campsite on the east that Mountain Goat had wanted. Twenty minutes after we pulled in, a group came from the east hoping for that site. Glad I had gotten everyone up early this morning. We had a lazy afternoon of swimming, reading, and napping. It was a mostly cloudy and breezy day so not as hot as it had been. There is a beautiful deep swimming spot. The walk to the latrine is quite scenic. However, this is an overused site and has been abused by axe happy campers cutting live branches.

We had a beautiful final evening. A beaver swam by the campsite. A loon family was out with a young one. The baby was practicing looking under the water and trying to dive. But it would just come up spluttering with its wings flapping like mad. Mom and dad were catching small fish and feeding the baby. This site had 2 resident chipmunks. One was a full grown, well fed critter. The other was very young and tiny. The little one lives under a rock on the cliff face and would keep peering over the edge staring at us, hoping we would get sloppy with the food bags. We also had a rabbit come hang out with us and nibble grass through the evening hours.

Mountain Goat was the chef for the evening and cooked his specialty, mung dal. I paddled Bear around as he fished a bit. Caught a northern, but it raced under a log and broke the line so we called it a night.

This has been a really great trip and I feel so lucky the 3 of us had this opportunity. Next summer, the teenager will be off doing his Nor'Wester trip (hopefully) and then leaves for college the next fall. The years fly by.

~Paulson Lake, Glossy Lake, Elusion Lake, Glee Lake, Bingshick Lake, Flying Lake, Gotter Lake, Brant Lake

Travel Time: 9:15am-12:30pm 3.25 hours