(Mass Lake, Ell Lake, Iris Lake, Fetters Lake, Octopus Lake, Frost Lake, Unload Lake, Gordon Lake, Cherokee Lake)

We had breakfast and packed up camp fairly early. We paddled down Mass Lake to where we planned on heading off toward Ell Lake. Unfortunately there was no evidence of any old portages but the bushwhack was through open forest which is almost easy. Ell Lake had a lot of nice rock cliffs on its shore which were interesting. The portage out of Ell Lake turned out to be a tough one. Going out of Ell Lake wasn’t very easy because of very tight twists and turn that had to be made with a canoe and when we reached Iris Lake we were on top of a cliff looking down at it. It took a while to find a spot that we could climb down with packs on and then slide the canoe down to the person waiting below. Once we got down we were greeted by another nice lake. Iris Lake had more rock cliffs and rock structures that were worthy of being photographed. On Iris we started to see more evidence of old campsites and fire rings and they all seemed more appealing that that rock I slept on the last night. 

The next bushwhack into Fetters was another difficult one. We were unable to find any old portages which are probably around somewhere. We hurried across Fetters Lake and brushcrashed off of into the woods but soon found an old portage in good shape and then had an easy walk onto Octopus Lake.

On Octopus Lake we rigged up the fishing rods again and were determined to have fish tacos at least once on this trip. Well, nobody did very well fishing here so we pushed on toward Frost Lake. The portage from Octopus should have seemed easy after the first half of the day’s bushwhacking but it wasn’t going to let us off that easy. It was all up hill and even the guys without canoes were hurting by the end of it. We put the canoes in the water and started rigging up for big lake fishing again. Again we designated a campsite to be our spot for lunch then split up and went fishing. Greg and I circled around an island to the south with no luck, just a couple of snags. We then headed toward the big sporadic boulder that is sitting in Frost Lake, sticking out like a soar thumb. Right after we passed the boulder my road bent over and the fight was on. I had visions of fish tacos dancing in my head but then I realized I had a pike. It wasn’t huge and we’ve given up eating pike for the most part so I let it go. We met up with the other guys at the campsite closest to Unload Lake and had lunch. This campsite was full of giant white pine, it had a nice fire ring against a boulder, and plenty of flat spots for tents. It was a really nice site but we had further to go so we packed up our gear and headed on.

The portages from Frost to Unload and Gordon Lake were much nicer. Wild roses in bloom lined the trail along the way and they weren’t all up hill, actually fairly flat. On Gordon Lake we started fishing hard again. I believe it was here that Greg rigged up one of the most obnoxiously colored lures I have ever seen. He had been having bad luck with lures not swimming right and some were missing hooks so I guess he was running out of gear. Well, there at the bottom of his tackle-box was this lure. It was a “Wally Diver” that had a pink belly and a rainbow back. I had to make fun and I couldn’t wait to point it out to Mike and Chad who later, also had their fun with Greg. Still, I had to think of my wife when I saw it. I’ve recently been introducing her to fishing and she always seems to go for the brightly colored, sparkly, or flashy lures. I knew she would get a kick out of this one. I decided that when the time came to pick out lures, I knew which one I would be taking from Greg’s tackle box. We trolled and cast all the way down to the portage to Cherokee Lake without a fish. We portaged into Cherokee Lake and began looking for a campsite while fishing. We found one that was kind of on a point that we thought might be nice to fish from. The site was nice because it was full of pine trees tall enough that you could see under them but not much bigger than that. The trails and tent sites were kind of carved out very cleanly. We set up camp and started fishing but were unable to catch a thing. We gave up and cooked another fishless dinner. While cooking I heard one of the bags rattling so I picked it up and there was a mouse pulling it away from me. I scared it off but it didn’t really go away, a second later it was after the bag again. This time I put a little more effort into rooting him out and scaring him off. Still, the mouse returned again and again. It was when I was cooking on the griddle and it was right at my feet that I got frustrated with it and decided to dispatch of it. I know some people may be upset with that since I was in its house but I feel animals should have a healthy fear of people and this one obviously didn’t. I was also concerned that gear would be chewed up by morning. After that ordeal and dinner was over we stood and talked around the fire. Bats were very active at this campsite. As we stood by the fire a bat would circle the pine tree between us and the lake zooming in ever so close to feast on the swarm of bugs around us. When we went down the path to hang the food bag the bat or bats would fly down the hallway between the pines and practically run into us then circle around and do it again. It was a little unnerving to see the flash of the bat getting caught in the light of our head-lamps just inches in front of our face.