We were up fairly early, loaded the van, and were off down the road. 

We stopped in Silver Bay at the Northwoods Café for breakfast.

The Northwoods Café is just a short drive off of Hwy 61. Good food, good prices, fast service.

We continued on to Tofte, and up the Sawbill Trail to Sawbill Lake. The place was a madhouse! There were 3 parties besides ours at the canoe launch. All were disorganized. Most were abusing equipment and/or each other. Not pleasant.

Even though we were the last to arrive, we were the first to launch (about 9:30 a.m.). Another group was arriving as we left. I think there are 14 permits a day for Sawbill. I could hear others spurring their group members on, worried about the competition. Geesh! I hate that! I felt like we were in some kind of cutthroat contest.

For the entire trip, portages were crowded, although we seldom saw others while paddling.

We had the wind at our backs on Sawbill. How often does that happen? The wind was from the south and we were heading north towards Cherokee. David and Julie were paddling my Wenonah Prospector 16, and I was paddling my new-to-me Sawyer Autumn Mist, 14’ 10” solo. We meet Don L. (eagle93) on the Ada Creek portage. We knew there was a possibility that it might happen. Don and another Galesville, WI teacher were leading a group of students on a trip. Fine group. Very organized. I spoke with a boy who must have been about 17. I bet he could have led that group himself. He seemed very competent … actually all the kids did.

In June of 2006, Jim/WI and I did this section and discovered that the old maps were no longer accurate, that the Ada to Skoop Lake portage was no longer 12 rods but instead 90 rock-hopping, ankle-spraining rods. I was prepared for it this time, but to my pleasant surprise it was once again 12 rods. A beaver dam down stream brought the water level back up so that it could be floated. It did, however, add a bit of a tricky pull over, but still much easier than before.

Also, there is a portage from Skoop to Cherokee Creek that is much longer than the published 180 rods on the map. Something to be aware of if traveling this route.

We made it to Cherokee lake by 2:00 p.m. and started checking out campsites. We were looking for one on a high point with good swimming. There were many campsites open on the lake but did not fit those criteria. The ones that were taken did.

We had checked out most of the lake and finally decided on a site at 3:00. It was the northeastern most site - #2055. It wasn’t the nicest site we ever had, but still a nice site. We had our own bay with good swimming and sunning rocks. There were 3 good, level tent pads, a nice place for the tarp, places to sit up high and places to sit down by the water. Good canoe landing. 

The fire pit area was small but nice. It was, however on the edge of a fairly steep slope. You had to be careful walking around the fire pit.

There was tons of firewood all around camp. I have never seen so much available firewood, nor so close to camp. Literally there was firewood within camp.

We did a quick camp set up and then went for a swim and had a cocktail. We were tired.

Supper was great: steaks; southwest potatoes (box), and; salad with sun dried tomatoes, croutons, bacon, lettuce, and dressing.  After dinner we sipped cocktails and talked until 10:30 p.m.