The first order of business was to retrieve the sports canoe, 10 HP outboard motor, gas cans and battery from where I had hidden them when coming out the end of the first trip in June.  The 14' Lund, left at the landing was overturned and also launched in preparation for loading.  Using the sports canoe and 10 HP motor, we motored down the river 2 miles to Two Mile Island where the 16' Lund and 30 HP motor had been stashed.  The spare 18 HP motor was retrieved from hiding and the 16' Lund was readied for return to the landing.  I tested the soil on two mile island to determine if I would be able to bury a motor storage box.  Unfortunately, all I found was solid rock covered with a very thin layer of moss.  The testing I had done in June was valid and not the result of permafrost as I had hoped.  We were back at the landing by 11AM and we started to load up all the boats.  By 12 Noon, the canoe was loaded with 8 full 25 pound LP tanks and 8- 5 gallon jugs of gasoline.  This required 9 portage trips alone and had me pretty well worn-out by then.  However, we had a lot of gear still tucked away in the densely packed truck.

The day had started out cloudy but became partly cloudy but without any breeze.  It became very hot and I was happy to have a big, full water bottle. About mid-afternoon that bottle ran dry and I switched to Mountain Dew, but it is not nearly as thirst quenching as water.  The caffeine probably kept me going.  I made at least 40 round trips across the portage with increasing disgust with myself for doing such a good job of truck packing.  Betty was a big help but her knee was getting sore, so she made fewer and lighter trips.  The heat made it difficult for her to keep her mosquito net hat on all the time and the penalty for that was torment via the local healthy mosquito population.

The portaging continued until 5:45 PM when I moved the truck into a long-term parking spot and removed the forgotten lawn chair from the roof.  The high water (about 2" below the June 29 level) allowed loading of the 14' and 16' Lund boats from Clarke's log pier and the sports canoe from the shore.  This saved us a lot of time and effort and considering my poor judgment in overloading the truck, it was very welcome.  We had all the tow ropes attached and the boats pointed in the proper direction and combined with the high water, and calm wind, we had a very easy departure at 6 PM.  The upside down boat on the left and the two boats in the background belong to the Indians who commercially fish the lake in the Fall