Wednesday, September 16, 2020 My plan today was to have an easier day and just make it to South Temperance Lake. I could almost throw a rock from my Cherokee campsite and hit the portage to Sitka Lake so I was there in no time. I stayed on top of the weather forecast with my Garmin InReach and knew that today was supposed to be windy but again it was a tail wind. By the time I got to South Temperance Lake I already was thinking that I might not find a site which would mean I'd just continue south until I did. I put in on the north side of South Temperance and the water was calm. But it wouldn't stay that way. As I headed south on the lake I checked out 2 of the 4 campsites on the lake and both were taken. I decided to continue south. As I got about halfway down the lake I could feel the tailwind kicking in. The water became really choppy. I didn't see a problem until I was approaching the landing for the portage. At the last second the wind blew me to the left of the landing and as luck would have it a fellow solo tripper was there to help. He grabbed the bow and stabilized the canoe and had he not done so I think I would have dumped it. Thanks Barkley for your help! My new friend had been standing at the edge of the lake for about an hour waiting for the wind to die down. We came to the conclusion that it was not going to be any time soon and so Barkley made the tough but wise decision to turn around and head back south resulting in 2 230rd portages back to back! Barkley took the campsite on Weird and I continued south to Jack. I had intel that the north site on Jack was open so that's where I was headed. The site was oriented a little different than it was on the map so it took me about 30 minutes to find it. If it weren't for Kimberly (the solo tripper in the south campsite) I wouldn't have found it and continued on to Kelly Lake. Thanks Kim! I settled in to my new camp at about 1430. That night at about 2000 sitting by my camp fire I heard A LOT of water moving close to my camp. I went to the water's edge and looked to my right. It was twilight and getting dark. At first I saw nothing. Then there it was, emerging from behind the point was the perfect silhouette of a cow moose. Fantastic! She got out of the water, shook, then headed into the brush. That night I woke at about midnight to the sound of Ms. Moose wading in the shallow. Fell asleep again and then woke up about 0300 to the sounds of two sets of wolves howling. So cool because it really sounded like a conversation. ~Cherokee Lake, Sitka Lake, North Temperance Lake, South Temperance Lake, Weird Lake, Jack Lake