Day 8, September 3, 2023. The Man Chain. 7.8 miles, 3 portages. Other Man, This Man, No Man, and That Man Lakes.

The Man Chain is well-traveled, so portages are generally nice and wide with good footing, etc. Paddling this morning was delightful, with only light breezes if any wind at all, but our afternoon temperature was mid-80s again, so we again stopped early. We expected to see lots of other paddlers on this segment of our route, but didn't see anyone paddling, and only passed one occupied campsite. We toyed with the idea of moving on to Emerald lake, but don't have campsites marked on our map for that lake and don't want to spend a hot afternoon exploring. We've occupied a campsite on the long, narrow island in the middle of That Man, convenient to the portage into Emerald, which we'll visit on our way to Carp Lake tomorrow.

We seldom swim during our September time in Quetico, but with the hot afternoon jumping into the lake in our underwear and t-shirts felt great, and wearing the wet clothing kept us cooler this afternoon. After dinner we did another evening paddle around our campsite island, and again left the fly peeled open on our tent when we went to bed, but pulled the fly in place at 2:30 when we realized we were feeling some dew on the side of the tent.

We've again heard and seen bald eagles near our campsite, and a pair sat in trees across from our campsite for a while.

Bellflower (or Harebell)
Home for the night.
An evening paddle on a glassy lake is magic.