Sunday, August 16, 2020 Well, guess what? We are drying out our tents again! Yup, late last night we caught the tail end of a storm and it briefly downpoured on us. The rest of the night passed without worry. Sunny and calm this morning as we packed up camp. We planned a fun side trip to Thunder Point to hike up to the overlook before turning back east and continuing down Knife Lake towards Ottertrack Lake. After a short paddle, we found the landing quite easily and headed up the well worn switchbacks up to the top. We were amongst the tops of mature white and jack pines and had an expansive view down the entire lake as far as you could see. We tracked the path of 4 tiny canoes below us, their paddles flashing in the sunlight. We tore ourselves away from the beautiful view and headed back to our waiting craft.

The wind was at our backs as we shifted east and coasting felt wonderful especially since we would have ZERO portages today. It’s a BWCA first! Navigation was easy if not monotonous. We watched fire scarred ridges appear once more as we passed by noisy eagles nests and equally noisy loons. The lake took a button hook through a canoe-width channel and widened out once more. This is where we started noticing the shiny steel border markers sunk into the rocky shoreline. It became a game to spot them. We took a brief lunch at a campsite then continued to let the wind steadily push us east to our destination: a group of 5 sites at the lakes eastern terminus.

We ended up taking the one on Knife Lake right next to the portage. We haven’t seen hardly anyone all day so we figured it would be quiet. Th site sits atop a cliff high above the lake with a fantastic view and a good swimming spot. A roaring stream is next door lined with blooming asters and jewel weed. White caps started to show up just as we settled in. Sage even joined us for a swim as we jumped off the rocks. It was a good escape from the flies. No luck fishing in the evening. After a delicious dinner of lentil stew with biscuits we gathered wood and listened to a cacophony of loons as we sat around the fire. ~Knife Lake