Once again, no pictures for this one, but it consisted mostly of getting across lakes. The waves had gone down since the night before, so getting off the island was okay, but still hard work. We decided to head back the way we had come in, to the NW, which meant some backtracking, but was the safer route. After we got back to the N shore we were pretty well sheltered from the wind and made it to the mouth of the river 4 hrs after breaking camp.
We had a short portage around a dam at the end of the lake. We stopped for breakfast and to refill our water before heading out. The next several miles were through pretty wetlands and we made good time. We ran into another pair of kayakers, Vicki and Peg, who had been paddling the river in sections for a couple seasons.
We came to Lake Winnie late afternoon and decided to try and get a few miles up the east shore before dark. This is a huge lake, MN's 3rd largest, and was 15 river miles. We paddled pretty close to shore the whole time and figured we did 20 on the lake. But, for Monday night, we were happy to knock out 4 or 5 and made camp in the woods.
Apparently the spot we chose was popular with all sorts of critters too. There were raccoon and deer tracks along our landing spot and signs that deer had bedded down there recently. We heard raccoons nosing about throughout the night and at one point heard them banging at the canoe. It stopped once we yelled, but the next morning there were two neat little 'coon paw prints in the frost on Aaron's seat.
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