Sunday was a travel day and we decided to see Winchell as we started making our way back towards the entry point for our last night in the BWCA. The day was sunny as we portaged into Winchell and got onto some big water. Shortly after we made it into the main part of the lake, the wind picked up but we were heading from west to east towards the Gaskin portage and were able to let the wind push us down the lake with a little paddling and steering. Given the consistent winds out of the west, it seems that entering at Omega and paddling east from there is a pretty good idea for Winchell.

We checked out all the campsites along the way. All of them were empty and we stopped for lunch at the last site before the Gaskin portage in the area burned in the Redeye fire. The stands of aspen were an interesting change from the sites we went to up to that point. It was warm enough that my companion jumped in the lake and did a little sunbathing. Quite a difference from a few nights before!

Looking at our options, we decided to try for the lone site on Allen for our last night. Seeing nobody all Saturday and so far on Sunday, we felt there was a chance it would be free. So we portaged into Gaskin (finally seeing a few people for the first time in a couple days), then directly into Jump (19 rods) and Allen (16 rods). The portages to get into Jump and then Allen were somewhat ridiculous with, essentially, 15 foot ledges/drop-offs to scramble up before getting on a level part of the portage. We managed it though, now having a little bit of experience with portaging.

Sadly, the site on Allen was occupied so we pushed into Horseshoe and took the first site we could find (site 672), which happened to be directly across from the portage to Caribou that we would take the next day. The site had a bit of that overused feeling that some of them get, but not as many trees obviously cut down for firewood which was nice. I was exhausted and ate some mango sticky rice and a chicken packet with a hot toddy and laid on a rock watching the stars come out until I went to bed. We saw the first few mosquitos of the trip but not enough to bother with insect repellent. September seems to be a great time to visit!

It was a great day but a bit more than we had bargained for with that last portage into Horseshoe.