Jim and I were up at 4:30 a.m. expecting a knock on the door. The plan was Steve and Larry would wake us at 4:30 and we’d head to the South Of the Border Café (SOB). We looked outside, and ... still their car was not there! Now we were worried. We decided to head for SOB. Maybe they were there. Nope. So now we’re imagining all kind of things.

Ten minutes later they walk in. "Why didn’t you guys wait for us?" Turns out they parked their car on the side of the motel where we didn’t think to look. They were there the entire time.

After breakfast we backtrack down Highway 61 to Tofte and then up the Sawbill Trail. We arrive at the put-in at 7:30 a.m. There were lots of cars in the parking lot. Four other people show up to enter for a trip. We talked to them a bit. They’re going to Phoebe. At least we were heading in different directions.

At 8:00 a.m. we left Sawbill landing with the wind at our backs.

Beautiful morning. Nice paddle to the Kelso portage. It was a bit tricky to find but an easy "walk-in-the-park" kind of portage. We checked out the Dolman and posed for some pictures. I’m sure glad those other guys know what they’re doing cause I would have paddle right past it. I always thought it was going to be bigger and more obvious from the water.

I love paddling the Kelso River -- a narrow, neat, intimate stream.

Likewise, Lujenida is a nice, little lake to paddle. However, after it comes the long, 480-rod portage to Zenith. Really the portage is not difficult just long – very, very long. I was surprised to run into two other people doing the portage. At first I though it may be someone from our group but instead they were day-trippers. They had left their canoe at the beginning of the portage, were going to walk the trail, have lunch, then head back to Sawbill.

The other surprise I had on this portage was the bugs ... I mean it was October. Aren’t all the bugs suppose to be gone? There weren’t many, but I did see some gnats and mosquitoes. Both buzzed me a bit but didn’t bite.

The double portage took me 2.5 hours to complete.

Once on Zenith Lake, on the agenda was checking out the old airplane that crashed there. Again, I’m glad I have my tour guides, because I never would have found it on my own. There isn’t much left, and it wasn’t a very big plane, but it was cool to see. We also noticed that the lone campsite on Zenith was occupied. What’s with all the people?

By this time the wind had really kicked up. The wind was making paddling not so fun. At least it was at our backs. We crossed Duck Lake and reached the difficult (really!) 3-rod portage to Hug Lake. Steve was at the landing so I pulled up along the beaver dam. I unloaded my packs. The wind was blowing my canoe into the beaver dam, so there was no chance of it escaping. I carried my packs across the 3-rod portage; put them down; and turned around. I was a few feet from my canoe. All of a sudden a gust of wind hit; it picked up my canoe; and rolled it towards me! Luckily it only took one-and-a-half revolutions before it stopped. No holes. Lots of scratches. 2 bruises. The stern got the worse of it -- a deep scratch down to the cloth that's going to need some touch up. The rest just needs some varnish. I did the rest of the trip with a duct tape patch to protect the cloth. DANG! I knew my new canoe would get some scratches on this trip, but ... DANG!

Really I’m not too upset, mostly I’m embarrassed. The other guys made me feel better by securing their boats on portages, as if it could happen to them, too. In fact, it became SOP to carry the canoe up the portage trail a bit before setting it down to get them out of the wind. 

I was, however, getting tired and fighting the wind wasn’t helping. Then while paddling on Hug Lake, I nearly flipped the canoe! Boy! Was that close! Thankfully it was my only near swamping of the trip.

The 80-rod portage to Mesaba was easy, though I felt some trepidation about paddling the lake with that wind. But I figured, "Don’t worry about things you can’t control. Deal with it when it’s time." My philosophy paid off because, luckily, the wind died down momentarily and we had a nice paddle that took us to the northern most campsite on Mesaba. We’re home for the night at 5:30 p.m.

The previous guests left a nice supply of welcome wood. Thank you. We set up camp during which I notice a fly in camp. What’s that about? More bugs.

Jim made steaks and mashed potatoes. They were great! Garlic cheese biscuits came from the reflector oven. Pudding cups for dessert. Supper was eaten after dark -- a long, and windy, day.

We had a nightcap at 9:00 p.m. and to bed at 9:30. Everyone was tired and a little sore from the day’s travels. Between the nightcap and bed, while I was doing my pre-bedtime rituals, a squirrel ran over my foot causing me to scream like a schoolgirl. What in the h-e-c-k is a squirrel doing up after dark! Ever since the mouse-up-my-pant-leg incident a few years ago, I’ve been a bit skittish about small mammals and my lower extremities.