13 August 2017, Sunday Pocket Lake to Finger L, Thumb L, Bear Paw, Little Bear Paw, Eugene We wake at 6 am today hoping for an early start. Sunrise on Pocket Lake is golden. We are greeted just before rising by an owl calling, “Who cooks for you?” As we prepare breakfast, we can hear the coyote choir again and deeper voices that perhaps sound like wolves. We are on
12 August 2017, Saturday We sleep in almost until 8 this morning and wake with the sun warming our toes as it shines on the foot of the tent. Breakfast is a bacon and cheese potato cake, the first time we have tried this out in the bush, as opposed to car camping. It turns out delicious, but clean-up takes a bit of soaking due to the burnt on bits.
11 August 2017, Friday The mist on the lake is so dense this morning that we cannot even see the water while sitting by lake’s edge. As we rehydrate our noodle kugel the ripples on the lake gradually reappear. Soon we can see a suggestion of the opposite shore as the grey curtain lifts. The moon’s reflection in the water appears to be caught in a silver spider web as
10 August 2017, Thursday No rain this morning, just clouds. We have our breakfast of oatmeal and dried cherries on the rocks, then we are back on the water by 10 am. We find the long portage into Oyster Lake easily. At least it seems easy, until we get to the beaver meadow. I carry my heavy Granite Gear pack through the muck and then go back to help O.
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
8 August 2017, Tuesday Entry #14, Little Indian Sioux to Shell Lake By 6:40 this morning we have eaten our breakfast pie and have returned to Piragis in Vincent so that we, our gear, and our rental canoe can be shuttled to our put-in at entry point #14. After several variations we have finally determined how to pack everything into our Granite Gear pack and our LL Bean Hunters’ Pack.
7 August 2017, Monday By the time we wake this morning we have both come to the conclusion that the 17 foot Pak Canoe won’t work for us. It is a bit awkward to carry due to its weight and to the location of the thwart forward of the portage yoke. If O’s arms were about 4 inches longer it might work, but that is not the case. We do
6 August 2017 Sunday We sleep in until 7:30 and then make the short walk to The Chocolate Moose. Here we both order blueberry pancakes. We each get two plate-sized cakes. Needless to say, there are left overs. After eating we browse around Piragis’ store and then head to the outfitting part of the operation out back. Micky knows we are coming and introduces us to our rolled up Pak
5 August 2017, Saturday There are no further showers overnight. Our tarp is wet only from the dew. We breakfast on pancakes cooked in camp and cannot finish them all. By 9:30 we are on the road, having gained an hour when we crossed into the central time zone. Once again our drive is smooth and the weather is fine. At a rest stop in Minnesota we have a chance
4 August 2017, Friday Copper Range Campground When we arrived at our campsite last night, the step stool we had left behind to mark our site as occupied was missing. O went to check with the campground host. Only their dog was home, but a stool very much like ours was outside. This morning we return to the host’s site. This time a woman answers the door. The step stool