It rained in the night, but we didn't hear it. We enjoyed our usual full breakfast in the dining room at Clearwater Lodge, talking with some ladies from Illinois who were going out on a day trip. They were serious birdwatchers.

We drove to the Cross River landing and unloaded the car. Time to start the canoe trip!

It began to drizzle, so I took my rain gear out. As I was putting it on, it totally disintegrated! Crumbled into nothing! How weird! This caused some panic. We left our canoe and gear at the landing and went out in search of a rain suit. (I had admired some Woolrich rain gear at Ben Franklin's in Grand Marais--even considered trying it on, and had decided to wait until after the trip. This was a mistake!) We drove to Guntflint Outfitters but they didn't have my size, so Bonnie called some other outfitters and we ended up buying a suit at Gunflint Pines Outfitters. It was a rubber suit and would be hot and stiff, but I'd certainly be dryer than I would have been with none!

It was almost 11 AM when we finally got back and started our trip. The three portages into the BWCA are easy ones and not all that long (50, 40, and 24 rods respectively). We ate our lunch at the beginning of the second portage. The BWCA sign is on the portage out of Ham Lake, even though the actual boundary is a little ways down the river. There are large submerged rocks on the river just after the portage, and we met six canoes in that spot, so we were picking our way very carefully. The weather was misty rain, breezy, gray sky and cool. My new rain gear, by this time, had split in the seat, so I anticipated some wet-bottom days!

We stopped to camp at about 2:00, at a rocky point site on Cross Bay Lake. Two canoes (the people who were at the landing when we started out) came by and took the portage, which is very near the campsite and in full view. It was looking more seriously like rain, so we were glad that we had stopped early. [We didn't take a tarp in those days.] We napped in the tent and woke up a little chilly. Cappuccino and supper fixed that. Natural High Teriyaki Chicken with extra rice. It was OK.

As we were having coffee after our dinner a light rain started, so we hurried to do the dishes and hang the packs. We were in the tent at 6:30 with light rain still falling, reading our books until it was too dark to see.