The rain had stopped but nothing had dried out by the time we woke. We had a breakfast of sausage gravy and biscuits then began packing up. We were careful to keep the items we wanted to keep dry separate from the wet items. The additional weight of the wet items in the packs were noticeable.

We were on the water a little later than usual this morning. It was a short paddle to the first portage. This portage has a steep decline into a creek bed and a steep incline out of the bed. The downward side was slick rock, and the rain from the night before did not help. I ended up sliding down into the creek bed. This area also required two of us to get the canoe through. The portage was overgrown but typical for this area. About 30 feet from the end of the portage, there was a beaver dam to lift over.

It was a short paddle up the river to the next portage. At this portage, the river had tall grass growing in it. There were three paths through the grass. One path appeared to go north toward Tool Lake. The other two paths went to the north shore and the south shore of the Louse River. We explored and found a portage landing on the south shore. The portage was in good shape and was well traveled. The landing at the other end of this portage was good and we were soon back on the water. We paddled a short distance and found ourselves back at the start of the same portage. Apparently, the portage took us south. I have never felt the need to use a compass on a portage. After further exploring, we found another, not so obvious, portage landing on the north shore. This was the correct portage. We were a little upset with ourselves for doing the extra work of going backwards.

The next portage took us into Bug Lake. I was a decent portage. We decided to have lunch at this portage. I could not take a third lunch of PB&J bagel in a row, so I got out the Starkist packets of buffalo chicken, rehydrated some cheese, and put it on tortillas. We had a decision to make. If we continue on the Louse River, the next two portages will be very difficult. We still had four portages to go before we got to our target lake. The other options was to go north on Bug and take two longer and one shorter portage to Mesaba Lake. Both routes will put us in good position to get to the long portage the next day. We decided to go north.

The portage from Bug to Dent took us a little while to find. We actually started down another path before we decided to keep searching. Dent is a pretty lake. About half the paddle was on the open lake and the other half was in a narrow channel.

The portage from Dent to Chaser Lake was difficult. It was mostly uphill from Dent and felt longer than the 131 rods on the map. The portage ended at a stream that was dammed by a beaver. The landing was difficult and once in the boat, we had to paddle around several trees to get to the dam. We lifted over the dam and were in Chaser Lake.

We paddled across Chaser to another dam. There was no obvious portage, but we were able to get over the dam and down to Mesaba. Once on Mesaba, we paddled about two thirds of the length of the lake and took the campsite on the north shore.

The campsite was not the best, but we made do. There were a couple decent tent pads, but I had to walk quite a distance to find two trees to hang my hammock. The fire grate area was exposed with no trees to provide any shade. It was also open to the wind coming from the west.

We were able to find a place to hang the dining tarp so it could dry out. We hung the remaining wet items. The sun and the breeze had most items dry quickly. Dinner was a pasta with beef and marinara sauce. Desert was freeze dried brownie crumbles.

At night I heard two animals. One was a beaver slapping its tail on the water. It did it about five times. While lying in the hammock, I heard an animal urinating not far from my hammock. It sounded like a horse peeing. I assume it was a larger animal.

We traveled about 7.5 miles today.