Monday, September 07, 2020 The route back to Sawbill. Remarkably, the morning breeze was much less gusty and more steady than forecast. We were able to avoid most of the light rollers by using islands as shields until we got to Cherokee Creek and headed west. What a different experience the creek was than I remembered from the 60’s….lower water, a nice beaver dam, much windfall. But it was a mostly a wind-less journey which was welcome. We took the 180 rod portage to Skoop, crossing the Laurentian divide yet again, to enter the Sawbill drainage. Took the short 12 rod into the Ada Creek, but the low water was a real bummer with a load. We could see that many were using a makeshift, but somewhat improved portage mostly along the creek channel. The sons-in-law unloaded the craft and soloed the canoes downstream to deeper waters. We portaged the gear and then continued, often slipping off sharp rocks into the black muck of the northwoods version of wet soil… Met several parties headed back on this Labor Day. Enjoyed hearing about their adventures, including the guys that started on Brule the day we started on Sawbill. At least we didn’t capsize as they did, which was not surprising considering the size of the cooler they had and the amount of stuff they were carrying. Another portage and into Ada Creek again and then another, and our last portage and back to Sawbill.