9 August 2017, Wednesday, on to Hustler Lake

We wake today to clouds, with a break of about 10 minutes of sunshine on our east-facing campsite. As we are cleaning up from breakfast and taking down the tent and tarp, distant rumbles of thunder provide an incentive for added speed. We are soon on the water, rain suits on, as a cold downpour begins. Happily, the rain clears, but we lose about an hour of travel time searching for the portage trail along the marshy shore of the cove where we believe the take-out to be. We are developing a definite fondness for those bright orange triangles marking campsites, and the yellow signs marking portages that we have had to guide us on previous canoe trips. Because the Boundary Waters is considered a wilderness, no signs are allowed. We must navigate strictly by map, compass, and our little GPS device which can at least give us our coordinates.

We finally determine that we are in the wrong cove. We paddle a bit north to an area that appears to be a very rocky take-out. It is a jumble of boulders across which we can see Little Shell, the next lake over. Luckily for us, a party of fishermen paddle up to the true portage trail, a mucky, but much easier take-out. From Little Shell we have a short hop to Lynx Lake, then a 1 km portage to Ruby Lake, and another short portage onto Hustler. By now we have a strong headwind and thunder to our south and west. We arrive at a lovely pine barren campsite with a rocky shore just as the thunderstorm reaches us. We quickly set up the tarp and cook up our supper of cassoulet in its shelter. By the time dinner is done, the rain has stopped, and we are able to set up the tent and hang our food. We will sleep well tonight! We are the only campers on this lake and it is very peaceful.

Wildlife so far: juvenile bald eagle, loons, mouse, beaver, chipmunk, red squirrel.