Friday, July 26, 2024 Wind kept up all night, but a little less intense this morning, so we had our last batch of pancakes. After a second cup of coffee we put out the fire and went exploring, but not before a nice soloist stopped by for some navigational assistance. Got him headed towards Jordan and waved goodbye. Didn't get his name but he said he was on bwca.com sometimes so "Hi, how'd the rest of your trip go?"

Our goal today is to find Solitude on this busy lake! Had to portage the canoe over to the red pine woods west of camp to find a quieter area to launch from- lots of jagged rocks in the waves right at camp. Followed the shore of the bay until we found the remnants of the old portage trail into Solitude. We were able to bushwhack fairly easily into Solitude- the old trail is faintly visible. It's starting to get harder to follow in a few spots where trees have fallen over the old trail and new trails have sprung up. Would be hard to get the Quetico through, but something shorter and slimmer like my Magic would be quite doable.

Came back to Ima and paddled over to Alworth, which was pretty but also busy. The first campsite on Alworth is directly at the end of the portage trail- not optimal. Very pretty portage. We wanted to find out if you could paddle to Muzzle. Both our maps show a campsite there, and it's not near a hiking trail, so......the short answer is probably not. We got a little ways past where the hiking trail crosses the creek on a beaver dam and turned around. The beavers are very busy along that stretch....a portage would be easier than the constant in and out. PP says- disconnected location. Back into Ima, ate our lunch on a rocky point on the calm side of the lake. Discovered that pickles wrapped on Korean jerky are delicious!

Back in camp, and the wind is really fierce. Jesse went exploring behind camp and found a huge garbage dump.....tents, bags full of crushed beer cans and other garbage, stove pipe sections, a snow shovel, plastic cups, plates, etc, and a 50 gallon orange barrel. He took pics and dropped a pin on his map and I'll call the FS when we get out.

Trips always feel too short at this point. I miss Ole and Amelia, and good food and a soft bed, but I also never want to leave the woods.

~Ima Lake, Solitude Lake, Alworth Lake