Sunday, August 27, 2023 Bell, No name, Fran, Slate, Saganagons

Wake up to heavy fog and no sunshine. We packed up and had some breakfast moving slowly. After the beautiful sunny afternoon yesterday, it felt damp and cold. A short jaunt to the portage and unload again. Not a long portage but pretty rough and slippery. Over to a No Name lake and the Sun came out again.

Then a harder portage into Fran. Lots of up and down with slippery rocks. The next was from Fran to Slate. It was a flat easy one right next to the creek. And no where near the 75 rods shown on the map. More like 25 if that. We launched into a lily pad choked inlet on Slate. Ahh, the newbies got to experience what we had a lot of last year. We started calling lily pads “brake pads”. They have a tendency to slow down your boat. Mart was ready with instructions to “just put your head down and paddle”. It wasn’t too long and we broke free to a leisurely cruise across the lake. I didn’t see them but there were a couple having lunch at the campsite. They passed our site on they way back that evening. I didn’t see them then either so I’m still counting as a no people day. Our final portage of the day was quite easy except for the “chickens” that were blocking the path. What are chickens doing way out here? How could they possibly survive the winter? Figured out later that they we probably grouse and know how to survive. We loaded up and went in search of camp. Mart headed out and continued South. I saw the campsite at the point of the cove and my map said to go North. The only thing South was the portage to Lilypad Lake and some unconfirmed campsites. Time to blow a whistle to get their attention. Mine was buried in my day pack so Rob got his out. Let ‘er rip I said and he gave it a good blow. You call that a whistle??? It sounded like something you’d get in a Happy Meal! I decided a good throaty yell would work and gave it a go. It worked, Rob turned around with a surprised look on his face at the decibel level. I yelled “come back” with the appropriate hand gestures. We did a quick scoot North East and found the 5 star site available. Time for lunch and a quick swim. But first was a site clean up. This is the first and only site that we found trash(ed) on this trip. The people before we slobs. Half burned plastic bottles and wrappers in the fire pit. Pieces of trash around on the ground. Cigarette butts all around. Fish guts and skins in the shallow water to the west. And a dead pike in the rocks and shallow water in front. Sometimes I wonder what people are thinking. Got all set up and relaxed for the afternoon. It’s a big site with lots of room. There’s the firepit/ kitchen area. Then another big clearing for tents. I set my hammock on the edge of the main clearing but it didn’t feel “right”. I ended up walking back in the trees and found plenty of spots.

View South I tried a little shore fishing but had no luck. Another killer dinner from out ample supplies. Homemade chili and cornbread in the Frybake pan. It was forecast to rain the next day so we decided to hang out for another day there. Off to bed with the moon getting fuller every day. Plenty of light to see by and you almost don’t need a flashlight.