Day 5 We woke up to the sound of Russ saying; “There’s a mouse in my tent!” Once we all got up we learned Russ had a rough night due to food poisoning. We skipped breakfast and agreed to eat at the start of the Long Portage. We were the first to hit the water and set out on to the misty, quiet lake. The fog was so thick we couldn’t see the Rose Lake Cliffs which I was sad about because I was looking forward to seeing them up close the whole trip. We also had to take a longer way around the lake, close to shore so we wouldn’t get lost in the fog in the middle of the lake. We eventually saw Matt stationary by the shore and he told us he was having trouble with his GPS and used our voices to help find where he was. We paddled together and told stories until we found the start of the portage, or so we thought. Turns out we just got out on some random part of the shore and had to continue paddling until we actually found it.

Matt took off in front of us never to be seen again until Fort Charlotte. We thought we were only going to need two or three rest breaks, but it took us a lot more. At the beginning, we made it around .67 miles before needing a break. The portage is roughly straight until there is a turn you need to make to get to the next lake. When we got to the turn off, I realized my dad left the paddles back at our last resting spot. He went back for them and I took my pack and went the rest of the way to the end of the portage. Then I started walking back to help my dad finish the portage. When we got to the end we saw a backpacker hiking on the trail that went through there. We talked to him for a little bit before putting in.

It was still a little foggy on Rove and Watap, but very pretty. I liked the portage from Watap to Mountain Lake. At the end of the portage we had a small lunch/snack. It was much needed!

Then we got our fishing equipment out and set out on Mountain Lake. We got to a shallow rocky spot and casted there for about ten minutes, without catching anything. We started paddling away from the fishing spot and made a plan to do some trolling. We also filled up our water bottles on this lake because the water was so clear. When I decided to reel up I got hit by a smallmouth bass. We saw some debris in the water so we casted around it to find that there were a million bass! We saw about ten fish, and about six of them bit my lure. I only caught two though. Turns out the trick to catching them was to cast as close to shore as possible. We put them in the boat and found a campsite to cook in. The goal was to catch and cook a fish for an award at the end from NomadMusky. We got to the campsite and hung up all of our wet stuff to dry out. We had trouble starting a fire since the wood was wet, but we succeeded in starting the fire. I fileted the fish and we cooked it in tin foil. It tasted great and it was worth the stop! We watched Russ pass us while we were stopped and we were able to get a great picture of him. He got to see it when we were done. We thought there was no way we would ever catch him again. There was a cool portage to another lake on that campsite that I explored.

We packed up everything, went to the bathroom and left around midday. We got to the end of the lake and made a plan. I wanted to go all the way to Fort Charlotte and stay the night there, but we would be in a time crunch because of the great distance. My dad wanted to stay on South Fowl Lake. He said we could go with my plan if the sun was still up when we got to the Fowl Portage. I found Mountain Lake was my favorite lake of the trip, for sure. The portages out of Mountain Lake were very wet and flooded. Nothing much happened though. As we got onto Moose Lake there was a strong head wind coming from the East. I paddled harder than I did the whole trip across that lake because I really wanted to make it to Fort Charlotte! My dad noticed.

When we got to North Fowl Lake there was another head wind. We paddled hard on the right side of the lake fearing we might tip over. I remember we talked a lot about the geography of the lake, which confused me greatly, and I still do not understand it because of that giant weed patch. Then we paddled to South Fowl and saw Russ pull into an island campsite. We considered stopping to camp there but I convinced my dad to keep going. We paddled hard across South Fowl, and even saw and talked to a guy at his cabin. We got to the portage and it was a sandy beach landing covered in sea weed. The portage is called the Fowl Portage named after the lake. People mistake it for the other type of foul even though they are correct. It was FOUL! There were many fallen trees and it was very hilly. It took us about an hour to complete, though it felt like we were cooking. We were trying to get to the Pigeon River before sunset. We made it in time and even had a little snack. There were tons of mosquitoes! We put on our long sleeves, took out some snacks to munch on as we paddled, and started down the Pigeon.

After about thirty minutes it got dark and the moon started to come out. The river was very shallow and we had to run the rapids in the dark. Our headlamps did not cast a long enough beam to be useful, so I held our flash light and told my dad where to go, while he steered. I couldn’t paddle since the flashlight was in my hand. We hit a lot of rocks and almost had a disaster. I saw it coming but we did not have enough time to get away and the front/side of our canoe hit the rock. We started tipping and I jumped out, but my dad got dumped and he managed to grab and lift up the canoe that was taking on water. I help drag it back up and grab the loose objects that fell out. We had to hold all of our stuff as we dumped the water out of the canoe. The water was very cold on my legs. We got saturated, but just kept on going. When we got to the bottom of the rapids we had the relief of no more rocks. I could return to paddling as the moon was bright enough to see the river. The stars were very bright and beautiful. It was kind of stressful doing it at night. My dad was telling me about how there is a long straight away, then a left hand turn, and then the Partridge Falls. When we got near enough, we could hear it for like a whole mile before we got there. As we got closer, we were going extremely slowly, trying to find the portage around the falls and not go over the waterfall. We thought about camping there but we were afraid my grandmother would be looking at our tracker and if it stopped there, she would think we were dead. We took a break and drank some water and put on some warm clothes. And then we looked at the falls for a little while, and completed the portage.

After that, it was a surprisingly short paddle to the start of the Grand Portage. When we made it there we were very surprised to see Matt camping there. We got there at about midnight, but he heard us and came out of his tent to say hi and talk a little bit. Then we ate some food, pitched our tent, and went to bed. I convinced my dad to put the tent on the wooden platforms there because the ground had huge roots all over from the white pines. I fell asleep pretty quickly, though my dad did not, again. This was by far our longest and most tiring day. The campsite had no good tent pads and no good places for fresh water but it had a really nice bathroom and some entertaining signs to read about the portage so I will give it 3.5 stars. 46.5 miles.