We exited our camp around 7:00 on Day 2, headed back for Chase and the remainder of the Frost. Plenty of rain had fallen in the previous week, but memories of grinding canoes mid-river still flashed in my memory. The Frost used to change character dramatically after Pencil through a stretch of very shallow water. That would be the test. After portaging around the small waterfall out of Pencil, I was greeted by the first big surprise of the trip: very high water. So high, in fact, that five feet of river flowed over top of the boulder field where I walked with a group four years prior! The local engineering corps had built their new aspen and earthen dam just downstream, and, just like that, the toughest stretch of the Frost had become just another paddle!

We worked our way westward, the Legend’s adventurous spirit surfacing when we would decide to run a little rapid set instead of portaging. We passed the tricky few portages around Afton, and my easiest trip down the Frost was complete. It’s a long portage south into Hub through thick clouds of mosquitoes. On Mesaba, we crossed my spring route again before turning west into Chaser. This is where we first encountered some navigational hardship. We were looking for a 125 rod portage as marked on McKenzie Maps. All we found was flowing water over a steep rock face. I portaged the canoe up to the shore of the beaver pond above. "That wasn't 125 rods!" I portaged back down and we searched the bay for a time. The Legend mentioned that it appears there's a red dot on the map before the 125, though no distance is marked. So we headed back to the face, climbed up again, paddled around the pond, and eventually found what we believed to be the portage. It turned out to be what we were looking for, but that was a trick for sure! The surprises continued once we crossed the portage. The creek to the north of Dent Lake was a sprawling mud flat: four feet of water lower than it had once been. The rain made our way just barely paddleable, though the outfitters told us after the fact that one of their staff walked through here just a week prior. We had lunch on Dent Lake before heading southward to the Louse. I had never done the Louse, but its rugged character was not overplayed in the stories I have heard. The river is wider than the Frost, feeling more like a river than a small stream. The portages are also bigger: longer, steeper, more overgrown. We spent the afternoon brush bashing, tree hopping, and mosquito swatting! In many ways, the portages on the Louse felt like the portages on the Sunday/Beartrap River to me, though those are PMA and these are, I suppose, “maintained.” Each portage had 5-20 down trees, which made for slow going. We portaged through the campsite on Boze, encountered a small black bear on Frond, and paddled through the last portage into Malberg. What a day! Similarly to the feelings of a bushwhack trip, the air felt so big on Malberg and the canoe so light. Simply being able to paddle in open water without the diligence to dodge boulders or the pry-stroked to make it around corners was a free and relaxing feeling. The Legend asked if I was up for heading to Koma. I had snacks packed in my life jacket and had been gaining energy for a few hours; I would happily go as far as he found the want to travel. We were the only group on Koma and paddled around site-shopping for a while. Later, he would remark how he had done the same thing 30 years ago and had come to the same conclusion. We reached camp just before 7 pm, a long day to be sure, but a successful one that found us on our target lake on a day filled with uncertainty. We hit bedtime early, content with our accomplishments. Despite running 5-6 rapid sets, we still managed to portage canoe-out-of-the-water 24 times this day, edging my personal best by a single portage. This incredible accomplishment was enough to boost our confidence for the following day. ~Bologna Lake, Chase Lake, Pencil Lake, Afton Lake, Fente Lake, Hub Lake, Mesaba Lake, Chase Lake, Chaser Lake, Dent Lake, Bug Lake, Trail Lake, Boze Lake, Frond Lake, Malberg Lake, Koma Lake