Thursday, August 22, 2024 Mart was up and had his hammock packed as I woke up. I did the quick pack routine, stuff sleeping bag in the bag, put on travel clothes as I climb out of the hammock, pack the underquilt, pack the hammock, pack the Hex fly. and stuff it all into the 20 liter dry bag. including my custom hammock pillow. That's my entire sleep system and probably the lightest component of my gear. Mart had the water boiling and had already drunk his coffee. Our breakfast was three of the 18 fresh eggs we brought and fresh fruit. We had cracked several the night before when we had a food hang malfunction and it dropped. Our portaging system was kinda formed on this portage. As I was making my coffee, Mart wanted to get started. He picked up a pack, then I helped him sling the smaller pack on top. Off he went UP the trail. Yep it's a good slope out of Sunday. It was long and rocky! and it was mostly dry, it'd be much worse if wet and mucky

A quick paddle across Meadow to the Agnes portage. and our portage pattern was set. I land the canoe, wet foot as it is the middle of August. Mart hops out, grabs a pack, and I sling the little one on top. He heads out and I unload the canoe. Then hoist it onto my shoulders with paddles and fishing poles strapped in. I also have my small backpack. He goes back and grabs the food pack. I go back and grab my portage pack. And he goes to get the final pack. While he does that, I get the canoe in the water and load the packs. He comes back, drops the pack in the designated spot and were off. We complete all the portaging after about 3 hours from leaving Sunday Lake. Hey it early in the trip and things are heavy. We have a lunch right there about 1 as we can see nobody coming across Agnes and nobody coming behind us. As we eat, the wind seems to be picking up and blowing right down the lake at us. Ahh more headwinds, we launch and head to Louisa Falls. The wind picks up as we cross and we decide the predicted afternoon winds are here!. We find the site next to the falls on the North side is empty so we take it. It is in the lee of the wind and very calm right there. Way better than being out on the lake

It's a HUGE site. There's a big meadow area surrounded by trees. We had our choice of multiple hammock spots. We did the set up chores, got firewood and rigged up the food hang. The hamburgers had thawed so we had those with a Bag'o'Salad for dinner. The box of red wine went very well with that. (Not the whole box!) Then sat around the campfire and got caught up on what's been going on for the past year. Clouds moved in with a wind shift and we got some sprinkling of rain. It was still a well protected site and we slept peacefully.