FEET!!: Vera Lake to Eddy Lake

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Starting out the second day, we knew we had some miles to make. (10.7, as it was, to our decision point.) Eddy Lake was the last lake where we could either cut back toward Lake One (via Kekabic, Fraser, Thomas, and Insula) or continue outward to small lakes and long days (out to Ogishkemuncie, Gabimichigami, and Little Saganaga). If we made Eddy (or, better yet, even further), we might be up to the longer trip. If not, we would need to shave the extra 10 miles and turn back toward Ely.
We got up at a reasonable time, and had some awesome ha-bros with peppers, onion, and cheese. And though breakfast and packing up took us a little while, we were at our second huge portage (of the trip) in no time. After 200+ rods of some rugged travel, we got to the lake we were going to spend all day on, Knife Lake.

Isle of Pines

Home of the Rootbeer Lady and the first we saw of the forest fires that have gone through in the past decade, Knife Lake wasn't half as bad as it could have been. When we got there, the sun was out, and we were feeling pretty toasty from the hike over. Ali and I got our only swim of the trip in, and after a couple handfuls of snacks, we were off.

We were lucky enough to have an awesome tailwind, which meant that Ali had a good half hour's worth of lounging in the first third of the lake. We had some nice fluffy clouds and blue sky for that third, but it didn't last long.

The wind picked up just as we were getting to the North/South branching of Knife Lake - also right around the time we got into the burn area. Giant grey clouds were rolling in behind us, and though we were paddling reasonably hard to stay warm, we probably didn't even make it half a mile before the rain caught us.

The rain itself wasn't too bad - nothing pelting or stinging, but the wind made it somewhat uncomfortable none the less. Shortly after the rain started, one of our buddies got a little hungry. We pulled off at this small island and found some shelter on the leeward side. Nutella, flatbread, fruit, and veggies were on the menu, and we left just as I was starting to get chilled again.

We had a pretty overcast remainder of the lake, with maybe a break or two in the clouds while on the South Arm. Just before the beach for the portage, the sun came through again, and stayed out pretty well for the rest of the evening. The bay the portage was in looked like the prettiest thing ever, though I'm willing to admit that that may have just been due to the sunlight. I don't think I'm used to such dramatic improvement of landscapes with the addition to sun. The Smokies look pretty decent/misty even with rain, but the Boundary Waters' rocky outcroppings with really reflective water get rather stark/grim when the clouds darken.

Anyhow, the portage between Knife and Eddy was short (20ish rods), so I tried out the whole portaging thing minus my pack. It was still pretty early in the day (3:00 maybe); after we shuttled our gear, we went back to find/check out the waterfall on the portage. Eddy drains through a small creek into Knife Lake, and there was a pretty sizable falls right in the middle

We grabbed some pictures and headed a short way to our campsite for the night. After putting up the bear bag line and tents (on pretty rocky ground - we had to tie some of our tent attachment points out), we started pouring over the maps and prepping some fry pizzas. The shorter route looked best since (a) we were pretty inefficient at clearing out of camp and portaging and (b) there was still some illness going around in the group. It wasn't the happiest of things for me to agree with, but it was the right decision. The trip still was fantastic, and having only the shorter mileage to worry about, I relaxed a lot more the next few days.

Our fry pizzas were delectable. All but the first held together well, though there is something to be said for the size and lid of a fry-bake. The evening fire kept the bugs away (not that there were many), and I turned in pretty worn out. I slept pretty lightly, thinking that the bear bags were awfully close to the trees. In the middle of the night, I woke up to either the actual snapping of a branch or from a noisy dream. Poor Ali had to come check the food with me, and while we did wake one of our friends up by stomping around, we didn't make him get out of the tent. The food was safe, of course, and so we went to bed again. I slept much more soundly the second half of the night.