We woke to a calm, beautiful day. Breakfast was a breakfast scramble backpacking meal. It was pretty good. We got packed up and headed north to the portage to Malburg. It was a short, easy portage.

We made our way up the lake to the point where a river leads east to Frond Lake. We had a difficult time finding the portage in the low water. It was a little upstream, but the canoe had to be lined through some rocks to get there. Once on the narrow river, we encountered boulder fields. It is a pretty paddle through the narrow area with cliffs on both sides. With a little work, we made it through the fields and on to Frond.

Once on Frond, it was an easy paddle to the portage to the unnamed pond. That portage was easy and we were quickly across the pond to the portage to Boze Lake. It took a while to find the portage from Boze to the Louse River. The portage is not often used. Once found, the fun began.

This portage seemed longer than the 130 rods listed on the map. It was difficult. It had a bit of everything; downed trees, muck, tall grass, trees, climbs of rock outcroppings, ups, downs, and overgrowth. We took the packs first. At several points, it looked like the trail just ended. With a little searching, we could find where it picked up again. I checked the GPS several times to make sure we were where we were supposed to be. We both went back for the canoe. There were many trees across the portage, some at chest height, it would be difficult for one person to manage the canoe. We did see what I believe to be a paw print from a wolf in the muck. It was too small for a bear but larger than a dog.

Once over the portage, the solitude was worth it. The river meanders with several pools created by beaver dams. We lifted over beaver dams, none too high, and had a few portages around low water areas or waterfalls. The river was full of lily pads and tall grass. There was always a path through the grass but we had to paddle through a lot of pads. It was slow going.

We ate another lunch of PB&J bagels on a portage to keep our energy up. When we crossed the portage into Trail Lake, I was relieved to rest for the evening. We got the south campsite on the lake around 2:30. We were the only people on the lake.

At the campsite, we unloaded the packs and took a break. I started to filter water to refill water bottles. The site was elevated above the lake with good views in all directions. There was moose scat on the trail behind the camp. Someone had cut down several live pine trees around the site and just left them lay there. It was disappointing to see. The trees still looked green, so it was a relatively new event. It is almost like someone was creating firewood for a return trip.

The clouds in the sky started to look a little dark, so I decided to start setting up my hammock. The best place I could find was down the trail to the outhouse. As I was beginning to set up, the sky opened, and hail began to fall.

I was dumb founded. I went back up the trail and found Ryan sheltered under a tree. We waited out the hail and when it stopped, he put up his tent and I put the tarp over my hammock. Once we were set up, the rain came. It poured. We had not had an opportunity to put up the dining fly, so we did it quickly while it was raining. It was not a great hang, but we were able to seek some shelter. By this point, most of the gear was soaked.

It rained off and on all evening and night. There was lightning, thunder, wind, more hail. Of course, we were the furthest point from civilization on our trip. We monitored the weather radio and at one point they said to seek shelter under a permanent structure, like that was an option for us. Our clothes were wet, but I did not want to change and get my dry clothes wet before bed. My primary concern was staying dry at night.

We cooked a dinner of Knorr chicken flavored noodles and foil pack chicken under the tarp. Desert was banana pudding, but we opted not to eat it. During a lull in the rain, we attempted to start a fire, but all the wood was soaked. We called it an early night so we could get into dry clothes and warm up. I read in the hammock for a while.

I did not sleep very well and woke up several times. Around 3:00 am the wind and rain stopped.

We traveled 6.5 challenging miles.