After packing the vehicle and readying the trailer on Friday night and a full day of driving to Ely on Saturday, we were as ready for our trip as we could be. The night before was spent at Lake Jeanette Campground after a great dinner and a few drinks at Insula in Ely. The mosquitoes we knew would be ever present for this trip after a wet spring surpassed expectations at Jeanette, but that didn't stop us from watching the sunset and making last minute preparations for Sunday's plunge day. By 9:20 after the winds died down, the hoards of mosquitoes drove us into our respective sleeping areas.

We woke up Sunday morning, did some quick packing and a pre-prepped fried egg and bacon sandwich breakfast had us on the Echo Trail before 6:00 AM. The first portage flew by as the mosquitoes were on some sort of temporary reprieve and the trail was in good shape despite the recent rains. We were on the water paddling before 7:30 as we knew the winds were forecast to be stronger and in our face most of the day. We planned to get to at least Boulder Bay, but when we hit an already slightly white-capped Nina Moose, we weren't sure if that was going to happen. The next sections of river were windy, especially the wider portions just south of Agnes, so progress was slow but steady. Thankfully when we hit Agnes, the winds were blowing across more west to east, and by sticking to the west shore we had no more issues.

All morning long we played leapfrog through the 7 portages with 2 other guys. They were always 1/2 a portage ahead of us, and while we could have passed them many times both on the water and at portages, we weren't in that much of a hurry and the extra rest was helpful. At the portage into Boulder Bay we finally parted ways with our portage pals, as they headed towards Tiger Bay and we took the middle site in Boulder Bay, satisfied with our effort for the day after the 5 hour 45 minute undertaking. After mostly gray skies, the sun poked out around 3:00 PM and made for a beautiful but breezy remainder of the day.

The middle campsite (#1820) was spacious, had level tent pads and good water access with the high water levels (might be trickier in regular/low water) and was much less buggy than we anticipated. The previous group had left a way too large log smoldering in the fire grate, which we dunked into the lake for a while and then carried off into the woods behind the site. I wish people would be more considerate of the dangers of such irresponsible acts.

Campsite setup for this day was purposefully slow, followed by a well deserved nap. We were woken by the sound of a motorboat going by around 4:30, quite unexpected as there are no motors allowed in that area of LLC. The boat was going slow and was across the bay from us, so we have no idea what the driver was up to. We ate dinner, fished for about an hour with no luck, watched a couple beavers swimming around and just allowed ourselves to soak in the surroundings. The wind died down around 7:00 PM and was calm by 9:30. A good campfire and conversations about the next days ended a great first day.