5.75 Miles, 3 portages, 75 rods

We tried to avoid the wind again by getting up at 4:30 but I was feeling sick so we slept late, which Jason didn’t mind at all. Getting out of Little Sag was difficult with strong waves and navigational confusion. At last we made it, hopped some small lakes, and went out to Gabimichigami. The wind was fierce, so we stopped and refueled with lunch before trying our hand at it. We struggled for a while and stopped at a campsite where we decided to stay until the wind died down some, which turned out to be 8 PM.

At the campsite we saw a pair of Northern flickers making a nest in a dead birch. We noticed them when sawdust came flying out of a perfectly round hole at the top of the tree. Two flew in and out and were fun to watch. Sparky didn’t have anything to say about flickers but we did discover that my “wingspan” is the size of an Osprey’s, while Jason’s is the size of a turkey vulture. We also read an extensive section on beavers, the Voyageurs, and the fur trade.

After a snack of biscuits and a dinner of beans and rice (our favorite), we headed out on windy, but much calmer water. At least it didn’t threaten to fill the canoe with water, like this morning. The mosquitoes on the portage were awful and we were very wary of the night ahead. Thank goodness for hand-protecting garden gloves! It was getting quite dark and we were watching out the best we could for campsites. I thought I saw someone standing on the side of the lake, but then realized it was a moose! And next to her were two small, gangly baby moose! They looked at us and we looked at them. They looked at us, and we looked at them. We didn’t want to get any closer than we already were (~40 feet), because mama moose are supposed to be pretty dangerous when they’re with their young, and they were right next to where we needed to canoe. Fortunately mama decided to move and headed out into the water, deeper and deeper until she was swimming. The two babies followed close behind, swimming with more agility than they had walking. Stepping out on the other side, the mother shook off, followed in suit by the two babies, and then they headed up into the woods. Jason said it was one of the coolest things he has ever seen. We made it to a mediocre campsite just as it was becoming completely dark and the bugs were getting really bad.