Day 3. Monday August 31, 2026. SAK L, Eddy L, Jenny L, Annie L, Ogishkemuncie L, Mueller L, and Agamok L. 6 portages, 7.8 miles (6.8 paddling, 1.0 portaging).

The overnight rain had stopped by 6:30am and we exited the tent to another gray morning. Breakfast was coffee and hash browns with bacon. We packed gear, loaded the canoe, and were on the water before 9:00. The gray cloud cover had descended, so we crossed the wide section of SAK in a mist (but no wind!), and our compass reading took us directly to the portage into Eddy. What a beautiful portage: nice stone steps at the start, then a climb beside a roaring waterfall. The east side of the falls had seen pretty significant burn, and it appeared that the end of the portage had been used as a fire break and backburn. We left gear at the Eddy landing and walked back down the portage for photos at the falls and at the top of the portage.

From Eddy we portaged into Jenny, where the mist turned into light rain. We donned rain gear, then stopped further down Jenny for lunch and to check our weather notes. During lunch the rain stopped, and we moved on down the chain of lakes and portages to Agamok. The last two portages, Ogishkemuncie to Mueller and Mueller to Agamok, were long and challenging with lots of climbs and drops with some serious muck thrown in for extra credit. Reaching Agamok, our destination for the day, we started looking at sites. The first two were in sad shape, and the third didn't exist, having been burned over. The last site on the lake (#1848) was close to the portage into Gabimichigami and met our needs. We set up our wet tent to dry and had hot drinks as a warm sun and blue sky broke through the mist. While looking for a good bear hang site, I found a long, slender sapling that a beaver had harvested and abandoned. Rather than throwing weighted cords over limbs, I was able to use a fork at the end of the sapling to position my hang. Dinner was a hearty white bean, kale, & turkey soup that we ate while watching an otter playing in the lake. After dinner we read more McManus and hoped the clear sky would last through the night. As we tucked into our sleeping bags, we heard a whippoorwill, a bird we hadn't heard in Canoe Country before. Later, after a 'nature call' where we were treated to a star-filled sky, Tia shared Wendell Berry's “The Peace of Wild Things”, one of many poems she has memorized.

Several days after we returned home, we learned that Berry had died August 31.