Up at 6:30am, broke camp, made oatmeal and bacon for breakfast and on the water by 7:55am. We said we didn’t have to be in a rush today, didn’t have to take things hard, could even double portage if we wanted. We had a short paddle to the first portage 72rd portage and I told Chris I would take the food/gear pack as it was a bit lighter and the canoe all day until the 320rd portage, and it worked out really well for the both of us. The fist 72rd portage had some elevation change to it and was not an easy walk in the park portage, but the trail was clear and made it easy after previous portages. Dark Lake to the 53rd and Rush Lake to 75rd were fine not much to mention. Short paddle on Fox lake and we were at the 320rd portage into Stuart. I started off with the canoe and lighter pack and the trail was really pretty easy. We made it past half way and were in swampy area/little lake when the trail forked. We dropped the canoe, checked the map. I checked the Fishers Map and didn’t see any other trail on it, then I checked my GPS map (Locus Maps, with the BWCA overlays, well worth $3 a month) and saw a hiking trail that forks off the path and heads south. So got out the compass for my first time ever on a BWCA trip and made sure we were heading the right direction. Chris took the canoe for the rest of the portage and we made it to a nice sandy beach entering Stuart Lake. We found a lot of good dry drift wood and Chris started piling it back into the canoe. We were shooting for the campsite on the NE end of the lake (1828). It was open as did appear all the campsites on that end of the lake, we weren’t sure anyone else was even on Stuart Lake.

Chris had hinted to me a few times during our travel that he would be okay heading out on day 6, made a comment also asking me how much I really wanted to see Stuart Lake. I let him know it was the namesake lake, the one I hadn’t been to, and the reason I initially picked the EP, so I really did want to see it. I’m guessing the trip was wearing on him, and I’m sure he really missed his family, and didn’t know how they were doing without him being home.

The wind started to pick up as we got to camp around 10am (easy 2hr travel day). We needed water and Chris wanted more firewood, so we went back to the portage and loaded the canoe up with firewood and grabbed water to filter on the way back. We set up camp, managed another good bear hang right in camp, and ate lunch (beef stick, trail mix, protein bar, milky way). Put on our extra set of clean cloths since we were done portaging until the way out. And Chris started processing wood, lots of wood.

The wind continued to pick up, and we really needed a rest and recovery day so I wasn’t pushing it to go out fishing. Chris to could tell I was itching though. I went and fished off a point from shore down a ways from the campsite, caught a couple small walleye on the tube and a pike on the whopper plopper. We relaxed, had an early fire at 4pm since we had a ton of wood. Ate dinner, Mountain House Power Pack Chicken and Rice with a tortilla. Chris asked if I wanted to go out fishing as he knew I wanted to, though it was still windy. We paddled across the lake at sunset to the peninsula on the other side. Fished between the peninsula and island out of the wind, with little luck. We then went in the wind and casted to shore, just on the point of the peninsula and Chris got a walleye on “sparkles” and I got one on “confused”. It gave us an idea where the fish were at, but we were ready for another fire and time to relax. We stayed up and had a fire and listened to the thunder rolling in the distance. We buttoned up camp, and headed to bed just as the rain began.