Wednesday, August 21, 2024 Day one into the wilderness. Since we moved our tow back to Noon, we had a nice leisurely prep. Picked up the canoe and went to Moose lake for our tow. Hoped in the boat and up to PP Of course our schedule lands us right at lunch hour so we have to wait for them to return. There was a float plane at the dock. We met some government naturalist coming back from lunch with the ranger. We talked with them and they were doing a official survey of the area. Nice job to have but they weren't camping in the park that night!

The plane took off as we fought a good headwind westward on Basswood lake. I was up front so I just put my head down and dug in. We zig zagged a little and made our way to the portage to Burke. Triple portage at first as we were still getting our travel legs going. Also had to figure the best pack carry combination. We really don't like doing the pack on front. The first portage was not too bad and it felt good to be making progress. Its very well traveled. What was a strong headwind turned into a pleasant tailwind. Across Burke and then to Sunday lake. The second portage is right up there in the easiest category. The only thing is it goes right through a campsite. The campers were very noninteractive and didn't even say hello, a few never even looked at us. Oh well, to each their own There we started looking for a campsite as it was getting late afternoon. We went straight across the lake towards the Meadow portage as it was getting on in the afternoon. Checked out several on the way and settled for the site at the portage to Meadow. There was one on a small island towards the east end but it looked overgrown. We thought the one right across from the portage would be good as it had a 4 star rating. Not my rating, it was back in the trees with no view. Lots of room for a large group and easy landing which is probably the reason for the high rating. So we paddled across to the site next to the portage. We had planned to go to Meadow and camp there unless we found a great site on Sunday. But the afternoon was moving on and figured it was too late to take on a long portage. we'd be screwed if all the sites were taken on Meadow. We were in the site and we'd be ready to jump right on it in the morning. The site looked good but the firepit was covered with a downed tree. In fact there were several downed trees in the site. Luckily there was a new rock ring for a firepit, though it seemed to be right in the middle of the portage. Good spot to spend the night but wouldn't want to base camp there. Ahhh, finally the first night camping. It always feels so good as that's when I feel truly released. Nice view but difficult shore fishing.