We awoke to a slight breeze out of the southeast, an indicator that we would have a headwind to contend with on the homeward stretch. After camping in our intended campsites on nights one and two, we were confident in our ability to exit on the third day as hoped for, but now we had to do it! We headed south to Polly before once again leaving a place I had been before to head for the Phoebe River. We struggled to find the portage for a time. Once we crossed, we talked more about the interesting forest ecology around us as we paddled our third river of the trip towards Hazel. We maintained our well-practiced routine of portaging and paddling, eventually portaging out of Hazel across a brushy, messy portage. It didn’t feel well-travelled past Hazel. As we paddled closer to Knight Lake, it felt like the portage-building crews had given up. We hit a wide open rock field that we couldn’t find a paddleable route through. I dropped the Legend off to walk the shore while I walked the canoe through the rocks.

On Phoebe, we faced the wind for the first time, with large chop bashing the shore. This would be interesting later! We had lunch on the portage out of the lake, as I heard about his winter and the places he had gone and seen. It’s a beautiful, falls-laden stretch of water on the way to Grace. At Grace, the southeastern wind was slamming directly into our faces, giving us a choice. We had originally anticipated taking the longer portage and taking a side-hike into Ella to shorten the amount of time paddling on Grace, but the wind redirected that notion. We cut across to the point, fought big chop in rounding it, and then hugged the shore up to the portage into Ella. Ella is an exceptionally beautiful lake, and a group was set up enjoying the campsite across the way. We encountered a pair of couples on the portage from Beth, where the Legend shared how many portages we had crossed. He would repeat this pattern back to Sawbill Outfitters later on, a touching feeling for me because, though he’s paddled, hiked, and climbed all over the world, it was special to know how much this trip meant to him and that I had a role in making it possible. We fought a heavy headwind on Beth, but the scenery alleviated the hardship. We had concerns about crosswinds on Alton, and that proved to be accurate. We fought our way to the eastern shore before catching a pseudo tailwind to bring us north.

The portage from Alton to Sawbill felt like the interstate after the routes we had been on. On the Sawbill side, the Legend introduced me to “his rock,” where he had once tumbled backwards and landed spine-first on this obtrusive piece of geology. I recalled that I too had a rock, over off of Missing Link Lake, though mine found my knee instead of my back, and I too pay tribute in future passings. (Read the Trip Report Here) On Sawbill, we passed a few more groups on our way to the landing, cutting through the headwind all the way. We arrived by late afternoon, shared some stories with groups nearby, and enjoyed dinner before hitting the road. It was a nice drive out to cell service to call the wives to tell them that we made it safely. All told, we portaged 59 times in three days. With the Legend being a month shy of 80 years of age, he certainly lived up to my moniker of him. We ran 5 or 6 rapid sets, so that number could have easily been 60+. Once home, I realized the most amusing statistic: that we had travelled about 56 miles total, meaning that we averaged more than a portage for every mile travelled! It was a truly marvelous adventure, and, as always, a true pleasure to enable the adventurous spirits of others while still reliably encountering the essence of challenge, beauty, and a sense of the unknown around every corner in this spectacular wild space that has ever begun to feel more and more like home. ~ Koma Lake, Polly Lake, Hazel Lake, Knight Lake, Phoebe Lake, Grace Lake, Ella Lake, Beth Lake, Alton Lake, Sawbill Lake