Wednesday, June 13, 2007 Again, up at 7:00 a.m. with a little help from Aleve. Today was moving day with the plan being to get the 95-rod and 189-rod portages done.

We left at 9:00 a.m. It was another very hot and windy day. We would be traveling upstream and into the wind all day.

The portages were a circus. Very busy. Where did they all come from and where were they going? We decided to have lunch the eastern campsite on Kawasachong Lake (#1017). We were thinking about staying there for the night, though we considered it marginal. It was a bit small. 

When we arrived on the lake, one campsite was occupied. We watched as the other two were taken. Just as we were about to leave a group of 8 college-aged guys showed up. We could hear them talking out on the water. They were upset all the sites were taken, but got excited when they thought perhaps we were leaving. We obliged.

They practically cheered when we paddled away and anxiously took the site. I thought it was small for two of us and those guys were going to cram eight on it. It was still early, but I suppose they didn’t want to do the two portages to Polly nor backtrack to Square. We paddled the Kawishiwi River to Square Lake. That river is really nice to paddle. We checked the sites on Square. Both were vacant. However, the southern-most site (#1015) was low laying and next to a swamp. It looked buggy to me, so I didn’t want to stay there. The other (#1014) was on top of a hill, and Jim didn’t want to stay there, so we decided to move on.

The first campsite on Kawishiwi (#1006) was open, but Jim suggested we check out the island site (#1007) first and if occupied we’d come back to this one. Well, it was occupied but as we came back to the first site someone else pulled up to it and took it. Darn! We were too picky!

A side note about the island site: I’m convinced that site was not occupied but rather it was being saved. There were two Timberline 4 s pitched on it and nothing else – no food pack, no packs, pans, no tarp, no clothesline, etc. Furthermore, the tents were pitch right next to each other and right next to the fire grate. To me it looked like someone went there and set up only the tents in an obvious place to be seen from the water.

We checked out the other 4 sites up at that end of the lake and all were taken. Now what!? We had been fighting a strong wind all around this lake and were pretty tuckered out. We certainly did not want to go back to Square. So we decided to head for the campgrounds. We didn’t have much hope of finding a vacancy there either. 

Then to add to everything, I got us to where we didn’t exactly know where we were on the map (not lost though). Jim had a mental lapse for a moment by relying on my navigational skills. Never do that! But Jim pulled out his compass and got us righted again.

As we approached the campground Jim made a comment about the sand beach just east of us, and how it would make a nice campsite. Jim had good eyes because it was indeed a campsite (#1013) and it was vacant. It was probably mere feet within the BWCA borders, and we occasionally could hear people in the campgrounds, but it was an official BWCA campsite. We were luckily. It was 4:00 pm, the first site from an entry point, and it was open.

It was an interesting site. It had a long sand beach with lots of animal tracks. Obviously the turtles had been laying eggs there, too. Also there were no log benches around the fire grate. I think this was the first time I have seen that. The site on Petersen Lake has a short 4-foot long log as a bench, but this is the only site I remember with no bench what so ever.  I was glad we had chairs.

Supper tonight was Knorr Teriyaki Noodles with Vegetables with dehydrated hamburger added and some bannock. The wind had died down so the reflector oven was performing well again.