We started the day with a long but smooth portage to Gordon Lake, where I hooked a very large pike, which un-hooked itself after a couple minutes of strong pulling. Once into Cherokee we started seeing many more signs of other travelers, both in canoes and in campsites. During the first of the four portages into Sawbill, we passed a couple of other groups who were double portaging.

Since we wanted to be leaving Sawbill Outfitters by 9:30-10am to be sure we got to the airport in time, we wanted to get down the lake as far as possible.

Paddling past site 913 we chatted with a camper there who noted they had seen a couple of open sites down the lake that morning. The next site, 2312, was taken. We paddled toward 914 but couldn’t find it, going all the way to the portage to Smoke Lake, finally deciding we must have missed it. We u-turned and put a keen eye on the bank, where we saw to our dismay that a woman was pulling up to what was obviously site 914. Dang! She seemed to be trying to say something to us but we couldn’t hear her. Finally, we understood: “I’m not staying here, just checking it out!” Whew, what a relief. Kim had been on a solo trip and was ready to use up all of the words she had stored away for several days.

The site was great -- a steep hill led to a hidden fire ring and nice tent site, and the rocks at the lake were perfect for cooking and hanging out. I tried pretty hard to catch just one last fish, but the water was very shallow all around the site. I finally started throwing a Johnson’s Silver Minnow (copper color), which I had tried a few times previously with no luck. After several casts this monster lure broke the line and went sailing off into the horizon. It was so shallow I thought I might find it on a swim, but when I went out looking the next morning I had no luck. No worries, I have a whole year to replace what was lost.

We enjoyed the pink sky as we ate our final dinner on the rocks by the lake.

For the day: 7 portages, 598 rods, 14.8 miles paddling (including back and forth between sites)