I woke up early to another gorgeous day with the sun shining and no wind. I let JJ sleep in a little while I enjoyed my morning coffee, then rousted him to begin paddling around 8 am. As we did yesterday, we paddled up small lakes and through the intervening streams before reaching a couple short portages. Then we reached the portage into Sparkle Lake which is about two-thirds of a mile each way, crossing one of the logging roads in the middle. After reaching the logging road it took some searching to find the second half of the portage, but we finally succeeded and headed into Sparkle Lake. Turns out Sparkle was pretty much like the lakes before and after. Oh well, at least it has a cool name. Today we did finally see a good number of mosquitos and black flies, although the biting was pretty minimal. We stopped for lunch on a small island, then continued towards Boulder Lake. Now we began getting into some pretty rough portage conditions, with multiple trees over an ill-defined trail. Towards the middle of the Boulder Lake portage, we found an area of significant blow-down with multiple large pines uprooted over the trail. Negotiating the canoe over the downed trees was a struggle!

After that brutal portage I was spent and determined to find the first available place to camp. Thankfully we found a beautiful spot on a peninsula immediately upon entering Boulder Lake. It was 4:00 and time to rest, even though our travel distance was several miles less than I planned. I believed we could make up for lost time tomorrow.

After camp was set up, I took a good nap while JJ fished. We stayed up late, enjoying a campfire and a view of the stars.