Sunday, May 16, 2021 The next morning, we awoke to a nice sunrise lighting up Missionary Lake. We had breakfast and were on the water soon enough. We paddled Missionary, made the hop through Skoota and Dix before hitting our longer paddle on Spoon. More memories of trips past came spilling out here. We made decent time down Spoon before slowing for the beaver ponds to Sema. This stretch of lakes feels so unique and different. There are some similar attributes to the Kek Ponds just the south with high topography and shallow water. We made our way east to a mandatory stop at Eddy Falls. Despite how overwhelmingly busy this spot can be later in the season, we had things pretty quiet today. It was fun to enjoy the falls in somewhat high water and enjoy them in our own ways without keeping tabs on a group. After a good stop there, we talked routes. Our initial plan was to head through the Gijikiki area to see the high cliffs on Lake of the Clouds and Cherry. I knew this route would be rough and, if T was already struggling with mileage, maybe upping portage difficult wouldn’t be a good idea. However, the scenery won us over and we headed for the Hanson portage. That portage is one of my all time favorites and I stopped at the big cedars and the falls for a few minutes. The group was rushing a bit through here as it began to become clear that T’s idea for a trip may not gel up with three former guides’. The portage to Cherry is always bad. It’s steep, the landings are tough, and the there’s lots of bad footing, but that was only the beginning. The portage out of Cherry I knew to be flooded. This day, it was all sorts of flooded and the great fields of poison ivy I associate with that portage had begun to grow for the season. After losing the trail after the beaver pond and bouncing around on the steep boulder pile for awhile, we finally found our way out. I love that chain of lakes for its challenge and its scenery, but the combination of topography, boulder fields, mud pits, and unpredictability was taking its toll. By the time we reached Gijikiki, it seemed the group needed a compromise. I, of course, wanted to keep heading on to Ottertrack, but the consensus was that, for kindness sake, we should stay on Gijikiki. Thankfully, the island site is beautiful with its high overlook and I wasn’t too upset to be off the main thoroughfare. ~Missionary Lake, Skoota Lake, Dix Lake, Spoon Lake, Sema Lake, Knife Lake, Hanson Lake, Cherry Lake, Lunar Lake, Lake of the Clouds, Rivalry Lake, Gijikiki Lake