The next day, we packed up camp and followed my tracks into Caribou and Horseshoe. It was a bright and sunny day again, making the management of one's attire difficult: too hot one minute, cold from the wind the next. At the end of Hoseshoe, we had lunch before the portage. It's a decent trail over into Gaskin. From there, we let our adventurous spirits get the better of us. We turned down the back bay in the direction of Icicle Lake with every intent of pushing to lakes beyond for the night. We broke up our gear at this point, paring down the non-essentials which we would retrieve on the return trip. As the group was finishing paring down, I crossed into the marsh to begin breaking trail for the group. This warm weather made for weak snow, and it was slow going. I was a good 100 feet ahead of my group when I hit the Tamarack tree line mid-swamp. In retrospect, it might have been easier to push through the forest, but the marshes are all so inviting without a single obstacle set to pummel one's face. I made a step and broke through, knee deep into wet, sticky mud. Not good. An attempt at crawling out got my other knee stuck, and then my hand. This is really not good. I'm wet, I'm muddy. Even in a "warm" winter, it's still well below freezing. I manage to extricate myself with great exertion and turn back to deliver the news that there would be no forward progress. The group had already come to that conclusion with enough wisdom not to need a Tamarack Swamp to teach them the error of prideful exuberance. We retreated to Gaskin, where I took stock of my situation. I switched gloves and stomped the mukluks for a while. They don't keep the water out particularly well, but they sure keep the feet warm. I would fix this problem in camp tonight. It was sure a sad sight to see my nice white mukluks tarnished with the blackened sludge of northern swampland! We headed westward on Gaskin with a few different pacing preferences becoming evident. The portage from Gaskin into Winchell is a brute in the wintertime, and it took a lot of effort and coordinated teamwork to crest the slope. On the far side, the late afternoon sun was already fading as the wind swept puffs of snow over the southern slope amid the blackened skeletons of the Red Eye Lake fire. We were nearly out of light when we set up camp on the lake, not far from a summer campsite. Getting the whole hot tent set is a time-consuming endeavor, and it would be after dark before we were all ready. I worked on drying foot and mukluk alike, and we tucked in for a cozy evening. ~Swamp Lake, Caribou Lake, Horseshoe Lake, Gaskin Lake, Winchell Lake