Friday, July 14, 2023 Last night it rained. I fell asleep with my rain fly only half way covering my hammock because it was a beautiful day and I didn't think it would rain... Once the rain started, I woke up pretty qucikly and pulled my rain tarp over and fell back asleep. I woke up this morning to another beautiful sunny day.

We woke up this morning and had oatmeal and pancakes for breakfast. Last year the boys complained, to mom after we returned home, about being hungary most of the trip... This year we packed more food and we have plenty. After breakfast we break camp and paddle towards Nina Moose Lake. We paddle out of Agnes and into the Nina Moose River. The river starts out with a nice channel.

As we paddle upstream the wild rice, grass, and lilly pads choke the channel down quite a bit in spots. Noah and Joel were travelling pretty light with only their packs and their canoe. They could paddle and portage much faster than the rest of our group so once we were across the first 95r portage, we sent them ahead to find a site on Nina Moose. The 95r portage was flat and easy. Last time we came through here, there was a water fall near the portage, but this year the water levels are low enough, there is not much water moving over the falls. The 70r portage is also easy and well maintained. Once on Nina Moose we meet up with Noah and Joel at Site #1786. As a dad, I'm proud that Noah (16 year old) and Joel (14 year old) were able to work together to navigate to the campsite on their own. They have been trekking in the BWCA since they were young, but I've never had them go out on their own out of my sight before. I was a little nervous, but also confident that they would persevere. To say I am proud of their wilderness, canoe, and land navigation skills would be an understatement. Site #1786 is a great site! It is large with mutiple tent pads, as well as endless hammock hangs. It is set up almost like it has different "rooms." The grassy point out front is a great place to relax in the sun. Past the firegrate there are multiple places that are sectioned off for tents and/or hammocks. A very cool site indeed. We set up camp, ate pizza for dinner, and relaxed for the afternoon. Joel and I paddled over to Site #1787 to check out that site since we had stayed there on a previous trip. There was another group paddling up to that site as we were, so we asked if we could check out the site for a few minutes. They were very pollite and let us take a few photos of Joel on the big rock at the site, before we paddled back to our site for the evening. Dad smoked our last cigar, and we squared away our gear as much as possible so we could get an early start to the day tomorrow. Everyone is excited to have breakfast at Brittons...