Friday, July 19, 2024: Reveille: 0500 Breakfast: Boiled Eggs/Protein bar and started hydrating 0515: Packed up camp, parked truck and loaded up 0530: Shoved off to a foggy lake with calm conditions. The sunrise was amazing! Headed up W side of Kawishiwi towards the creek. Paused for a quick gear adjust and then entered creek up to Square 0600: Arrived square. Still no wind and nice cool conditions. What a peaceful stretch! Paddled through Square to the portage. I bypassed the portage and opted to pull over the beaver dam. Continued towards Kawasachong and saw many ducks and beavers along the way. The next beaver dam was a pull over. The final one required unloading and a short carry. Watch the rocks in the center. Some are unstable and could cause turned ankles. Paddled KChong and arrived Townline portage about 7 am. 0700: Conquered the two longer portages to Polly. Easy double portage. No traffic. 0820: Arrived Polly and began the northbound paddle. This was my first encounter with other campers. Polly sites were mostly full. 0850: Arrive Northern Portage. Ran into a group of Girl Scouts (this will be a theme throughout this report!). They allowed me to portage through because they had 3 boats, 8 people and a bunch of gear. I was thankful for their generosity! 0940: Conquered the three portages to Koma. Pretty straightforward. The final one is around 127 rods. It has some small elevation changes but is very manageable. 1000: Arrived Malberg portage and got to the other side of the rapids by 1010 after taking in the view and pictures by the rapids. This is a must-see! 1015: Began paddling Malberg in search of a campsite. All of my top three choices were open but I settled on Site 1053 above the channel towards the NW portage. It was an amazing site! 1030: Arrived Site 1053 and began setting up camp after a short rest. I spent a few hours making camp, gathering firewood, swimming and relaxing. It was awesome to just be in solitude! The bugs were manageable. 1630: Went fishing in the channel and surrounding areas. 1700: Ran into the Girl Scouts who allowed me to portage through. They headed to make camp at site 1051 around the corner from me. 1730: Caught a nice walleye so went back to camp to cook it for dinner. I enjoyed that with some cheddar broccoli rice. As everyone knows, fresh fish cooked in the BWCA are hard to top!! 1800: Cleaned up, hung bear barrel, prepped camp for the evening. Enjoyed a campfire until the bugs came out. 1930: Turned in for the evening after a long and physically demanding day. 2100: Woke up to the sounds of a wolf pack howling about 300 meters NE of camp. What an awesome sound! They continued on throughout the night.

~Kawishiwi Lake, Square Lake, Kawasachong Lake, Townline Lake, Polly, Lake, Koma Lake, Malberg Lake