Monday, September 01, 2025: Agnes, Silence, Sultry, Summer, Noon, and Shade Lakes. 10.6 miles (10.0 canoe, 0.6 portage). Five portages (40, 350, 190, 75, and 115 meters).

For the first time this trip, we awoke to overcast skies—nothing threatening, but it could mean rain later, and at 7:00 there was already a breeze. We were on the water at 8:30, and went past the picto site on the island south of us again, taking advantage of the lighter breeze than we had during yesterday's visit. We paddled toward the portage into Silence, knowing that the Park's only petroglyph site is north of the portage. There are more pictographs near the portage, as well.

The portage into Silence had poor landings at each end that warmed us up for the rest of the day's portages. Silence usually has a group or two camping, but no one today. We did spot a couple otters, though. The 350 meter portage from Silence into Sultry had a bit of everything 'portage': steep rocky climbs, rocky ledges, boulders on the trail, muck, mosquitoes—you name it! We stopped at a site on Sultry for lunch and agreed we'd have to be desperate to stay there. We pushed on through three more portages to Shade Lake. It was only 2:00, and we had decided that Shade was home for the night, so we explored four sites before selecting our home for the night. There's a picto site listed for the lake, but it's 15 meters or so from the shore, and we don't have good directions to it, so we set up camp and had a lazy afternoon.

Our Quetico map-themed hors d'oeuvres tray!

Relaxing and enjoying our western view after dinner, we heard noise down the lake and saw a tandem canoe moving toward the site on the point across the lake from us. After a few minutes it was followed by a solo... then a tandem... then a solo... and a tandem. In 30 minutes we had seen more than twice as many people in the Park as in the previous seven days. The group pitched tents, started a couple fires, and the evening's silence ended.