8.25 miles, 6 portages, 250 rods

We woke up to a view of several dozen mosquitoes “camping out” under our rain fly, just waiting for us to get up so they could have breakfast with us. Fortunately, upon exiting the tent it appeared that nearly all the nearby mosquitoes were staying under the rain fly. We ate a relatively peaceful breakfast, the mosquitoes went hungry, and we headed out to buggy portages.

Once again, any of the big water we encountered was accompanied by strong wind and bug waves. Unfortunately, our route is almost entirely east to west, while the wind is west to east. As we were struggling in the wind we met a couple out with their young poodle that kept barking at us from under her master’s raincoat. We chatted with them some and ran into them again as they paddled up to our lunch spot at a campsite. As they paddled away Jason went down to let them know they were welcome to have lunch at the site with us. It is fortunate he did because they eyed our canoe floating away down the lake! They retrieved it for us, saving me (who had tied it incorrectly) from a cold swim.

We hit more strong wind on Eddy Lake then make it out to Knife with a lovely view of the BW from the portage, which are few and far between. We had planned to stop at the first campsite but the wind was tolerable so we continued on. It was still difficult to paddle, but it was no longer scary. We found the next five campsites were full, and got nervous we wouldn’t find one for quite a ways. Fortunately the next one was open, with a lovely view of islands and a wide variety of pretty flowers, especially wild roses and columbine. Also, almost no mosquitoes! Three fishermen caught a couple of nice sized small mouthed bass in just 20 minutes right next to our site.

Knife Lake is VERY clear with stunning rocks along the shores and in the water. Unfortunately it was hit by the blow-down in 1999, which leveled 300,000 acres of the BW, and now it isn’t as pretty along the shores as I’m sure it once was. We were in bed before dark on the longest day of the year.