The next morning dawns bright and clear...AND WINDY!! On top of that, the wind has shifted directions and is now coming from the west! After a quick egg-a- moob breakfast and water refill, we attempt to cross Ima. The wind is pushing in our faces at about 30-40mph and I'm solo in a 15 ft canoe. Regardless of how proficient a canoer I am, I get tossed around quite a bit and end up paddling backwards for most of the crossing of Ima. By the time we reach the portage into the Jordan channel, my shoulders, back and arms are on fire. I'd estimate it took us almost 40 minutes to cross all of Ima, and we still had a ways to go. The other guys seemed to slice through the waves for the most part, and I would end up seeing their backs for the remainder of the time on the water.

I really enjoyed the portage from Jordan to Cattyman, it's fairly easy after the first initial hill and the scenic view over what looks like a great smallie bay is very pretty. We snag a couple of good panoramic pics on Adventure with Disappointment Mountain looming in the background and stop at the beginning of the Adventure to Jitterbug portage for a few casts in front of some inviting looking lily pads, and Dag manages to reel in a 6" (yes that's right, six inch) northern on a Mepp 4. We easily portage over to Jitterbug, and as I'm launching my canoe from the portage and am getting ready to sit down, the left bottom of the canoe hits a hidden rock under water and my sturdy skiff lurches to the right. My hands are gripped firmly on the gunnels at this point, and in a split second I realize that I have to decide if both me and the canoe are going in the water, or just me. Since the food pack was situated in the bow, and all my fishing gear was in the boat...I let go of the gunnels and over I went, straight into 3 ft of water and a ft of muck. At least the food and the inside of my canoe were saved. I gather myself and attempt a second and more successful launch as my buddies are snickering at me. That's 2 for 3 gone overboard.

The portage from Jitterbug to Ahsub was well hidden, and if it had not been for a photo of it that I had seen in Koda’s trip report , I would have missed it entirely, as the other canoe with my eager friends in it had already blown past the channel to the portage and were already on the other side of Jitterbug. This is one reason why we brought 2 way radios, they help a lot. A passing group on Jitterbug had informed us that they had come out of a very windy Disappointment and that every campsite they passed was taken. We agree to grab one of the sites on Ahsub and make Disappointment early tomorrow as that is supposed to be our layover day. Low and behold, both sites are taken. As we cross the portage from Ahsub to Disappointment, there is a group of about 8 camped out at the other end, the older gentleman explains he doesn't want to take the younger kids out on the lake just yet, and we quickly see why. White caps as far as the eye can see, and the wind is now a howling gale directly in our faces. We set up shop next to them, eat a quick lunch of turkey sandwiches and trail mix, refill the water supply, and wait, and wait, and wait. No let up. It's now close to 5pm and we don't have any other options, as backtracking is out of the question, so we strap on the PFD's and off we go. It took us almost 45 minutes just to cross about a quarter of the lake, and just as the other group said, every campsite is taken. At this point we're tired, sore and hungry for a hot meal, we've been paddling for near 6 hours and we're beyond exhausted, and the waves are now coming over the gunnels, so without much of an alternative, we find a break in the trees with a nice big rock landing, and get ready to set up camp at a non designated site.

While I know this is against the rules, and if caught, we would accrue a hefty fine among other punishments, but we really didn't have much of a choice. There was another campsite about 50 yds to our left, and amazingly there was what seemed like a recently used trail from our spot to this campsite. After making sure our close neighbors would be okay with us setting up shop down the trail from them, as was the courteous thing to do, we pretty much blazed our own trail and made a decent campsite out of it, there was also charred remains of an existing fire pit there so apparently we weren't the first.

There was another campsite just across the bay from us, and about 3 times that evening and night, we heard yelling, banging on pots and pans, and loud whistles being blown. We would find out sooner than later the purpose for all the ruckus. After an amazing dinner of creamy cheddar potato bear creek soup mixed with red beans and rice and ramen noodles, we take a few unsuccessful casts and head into the tent just after dark. What a hectic, yet memorable day.