I don’t remember what time we got up. I think I got up at 5:00 a.m., got ready, and woke the others at 5:30. I think we got revenge on our loft-mates for the night before. We weren’t trying to be noisy, but we were four guys getting ready for our trip. I know we were loud enough to wake them. I hope they got back to sleep after we left.

We went to Briton’s for breakfast. My first time! I’ve done Vertin’s, Cranberries, and Journey’s End before (and maybe others), but somehow never made it to Briton’s. Nice place. Big servings. GREAT apple cinnamon jelly! There was nothing pretentious about it, a good, hometown, everyday café. 

After breakfast it was up the Echo Trail to the Stuart River Entry Point parking lot. Unloaded the gear and shuttled a car to the Moose River Entry Point parking lot. At some point in the previous 12 hours we had decided to take out at Moose River.

We started the Stuart River Portage at 9:00 a.m. and made it to Stuart Lake at 5:00 p.m. All the portages were easy although some were long. Also some put-ins/take outs were a bit tough presumably from the high water.

The bridge near the end of the first portage, the one going over Swamp Creek, was washed out. That was OK. The water was high enough to paddle the creek, shortening this portage by 60 rods. We had a 400-rod portage rather than a 460-rod.

On our last portage of the day, the 88-rod into Stuart Lake, we met up with another group coming in. I was surprised – first because another group had the same idea as us, and second because they were behind us and caught up. I thought we were moving pretty well. However, we were double portaging, and they single. They passed us and launched perhaps 10 minutes ahead of us.

Wouldn’t ya know it – 5 campsites on Stuart and they took the campsite we were heading for, the island site. That was OK; we went to the NW site (#1824), which turned out to be a nicer site anyway. Our site had lots of tent spaces, places for canoes, nice landing, and a good supply of firewood. It was an excellent site.

It had rained earlier while we were shuttling cars but didn’t the rest of the day, though it was very wet, drippy, humid, and totally overcast. The temperature was pretty good – in the 50s – but the wind picked up later making it seem cooler. The weather wasn’t the best, but it was great being in the BWCA and the company superb!

I had a hard time getting the fire going. Steve gave it a try after me and was successful. The wood was very wet.

What a supper we had! Steak, four-cheese mash potatoes, three cheese biscuits, and apple cinnamon parfait for desert. Then later we had coco with schnapps and smores bars. Yeah, we ate well!