by Souper Marci

Today was the first day that was consistently nice – blue sky, glassy water. Everyone (except Cynthia) went for a swim in the morning. One member of the group, who was attempting to up her swim score, swam twice.

We got a rather late start largely because we wanted to finish our letterboxing stamp. Letterboxing is a game, originally started in England, where people leave a rubber stamp in the wilderness and then post clues on how to find it on the web. Those who find it stamp their own personal logbook and the letterbox logbook to remind themselves of the place later. The stamps tend to be hand carved and unique to the location. Ours was of a loon in the water drawn by Angie and carved by everyone. The letterbox name became “Loon Addicts.” We all chose letterboxing names for ourselves – Angie is Angelfish, Cynthia and Emily are the Marshall Collective, and Josh and Marci are Souper Squash (already in use on former letterboxes).

After a breakfast of pancakes (yum!) We set off up the Granite River. We had two short portages of 27 rods and 36 rods, the latter at Saganaga Falls. While doing the first portage we were passed by a sea kayaker doing our entire six day trip in less than six hours. A little disheartening, but or course he had less weight and probably wasn’t eating as well.

We took a break at the second portage and looked for a place to hide our letterbox stamp. After much searching we settled on a four foot stump. We all ceremoniously stamped our individual logbooks, took detailed notes on how to find the stamp, and placed the stamp in the stump. Marci, the scribe for the day, notes that she hopes it gets found early next spring, preferably in late May.

So by now it was midday and we were so hungry we stopped at a small campground on an island and ate and snoozed for about an hour and a half. We discussed weighty topics such as where Josh and Marci should vacation and how long it would be before our letterbox would be found. After much discussion we decided that whoever guessed closest to the date that the letterbox was found would be sent baked goods or candy by all the others. We needn’t go into the many sub-rules, but it suffice it to say that this was a topic of conversation for what seemed like hours. The official guesses are as follows:

Emily – May 14, 2005

Marci – May 15, 2005

Angie – May 30, 2005

Josh – July 3, 2005

Cynthia – It will never be found (default winner after 3 years).

After great effort and thorough drying from our splash fight before lunch, we started canoeing again. We emerged into Saganaga Lake and its many channels. Angie displayed great skill in navigating us thought the labyrinth along the boundary between the US and Canada. We eventually made camp on Blue Berry Island, a windy but beautiful location named for the great delicacies that could not be found anywhere on the Island in September. We had pizza for dinner while watching the sun set, and soon after, the moon set.

Josh obsessed about using a particular branch that was extraordinarily high for a bear bag and spent 25 minutes stubbornly throwing the rope dozens of times before getting it over. Everyone (except Emily, who was washing dishes) threw the food bag into the air and/or heaved on the rope to get the food bag high in the tree.

As we went to sleep that night we heard something howling in the distance, perhaps wolves? More likely a coyote.

Toilet paper is running low (oh my!) as are Oreos (oh my, oh my!) and Josh and Marci are still tied for the swim score (yeehaw!).