It was another beautiful day when we woke at our Sarah Lake campsite. We seemed to be in a warming trend, each morning a little warmer than the morning before. Today was bright and sunny, and the temperature shot up into the 60s before we even broke camp.

Here's our morning view while enjoying a cup of coffee -

We lingered at our pleasant island campsite, finally getting underway a bit after 10:30. Our plan for the day was to travel the first half of a northerly loop back to Kahshahpiwi via McIntyre, Paulene, Marj and Joyce Lakes.

To go north we first had to go south, down Sarah Lake to portage into McIntyre. There are two portages between the two lakes in the same basic area, one steeper, one somewhat less steep but a little longer. We decided to take the less steep one today because David had never been over it. (Banksiana and I used the less steep portage on our "two solos" trip in late May/early June.) This portage is about 65 rods long and goes up 60 feet, so it's an easy carry, especially since the deadfall we encountered in the spring had been cleared by late summer.

On our way back for our second load of gear, we encountered a group of six or seven younger guys who were also portaging from Sarah to McIntyre. Piwi was very excited to see other people (she loves all people and all dogs). And several of the guys seemed to be dog lovers who didn't mind her exuberant attention. We enjoyed chatting with them and shared some information about campsites on McIntyre, where they planned to stay for a day or two of fishing. The landing space on this portage is limited, and since we were not in any hurry, we told them to load up and get going ahead of us. As they were shoving off from shore, the guys in one of the canoes paused to tell us that Piwi was a really beautiful dog. Well, we knew that, but it's nice to hear from others! I wish we had thought to take a picture of the group, as sometimes the few other people you meet in the interior of the wilderness can be as great as the water, rocks, trees and sky.

As soon as the other group had cleared the landing, we loaded up and followed them northward on McIntyre. Our first half mile of paddling on McIntyre was in the comparatively sheltered southern bay, but then we entered the larger roundish basin at the center of the lake that always seems somewhat tempestuous and threatening to me. Today was no exception, as a southwest wind had developed in the morning and pushed rollers against the side of the Champlain as we traveled northwestward. I aimed the canoe a little bit to the west of our destination to cut into the waves until we got in the lee of the western shore, where we could turn northeast toward our goal. The group we met on the portage was engaged in similar maneuvers, and we paddled more or less parallel to them until we went our separate ways further north on McIntyre.

David and I decided we should stop for lunch before our next portage into Paulene Lake. The day was warming up, so we were happy to find a rock to stop at with some shade and exposure to the breeze. Here's Piwi posing at our lunch stop -

After lunch we paddled the short distance to the 80-rod portage into Paulene. Although we had been in this area before, we had never gone through Paulene (also called Paulette on some maps), so we were venturing into new territory again. Maybe it was the warm weather, but this particular portage seemed to be humid and damp, especially as we climbed up a hundred feet or so before dropping down again to Paulene.

In recompense for the dampness, we found many mycological rewards along the way. Here's a little hamlet of red huts -

Red hut style number one -

Red hut style number two -

What in the heck is that? -

Mushroom roe -

Soon we were paddling our way down Paulene Lake. The southwest wind that had bothered us on McIntyre was now our friend and pushed us northeastward up the narrow lake.

From Paulene it was not far to Marj, our destination for the night. But there were still three portages in between. We had a little trouble finding the first portage, which goes from Paulene into an arrowhead-shaped basin that could be considered part of Burt Lake or part of the Darkwater River, or maybe its own thing. Once we found the portage, it was a pretty standard 80-rod carry into the "arrowhead" -

It was a short paddle from there to the next portage, which was about 50 rods that began with a steep climb and led to a little tarn on the way to Marj. There was a nice sandy bottom for the takeout at the beginning of the portage -

As I carried the canoe across, I feared the put in at the tarn was going to be in a mucky bog we passed through. But the portage gods directed us to an excellent rock outcrop instead -

From the other side of the tarn, it was one last 50-rod portage up then down into Marj, which has very clear green water -

On our only prior visit to Marj, we had battled wind and big waves on the north end of the lake transiting between Joyce and the main part of Burt. Now we were looking forward to spending a little more quality time on this lake under more benign conditions.

Our wish was granted. We enjoyed the emerald green crystalline waters of Marj as we paddled, wind to our backs, toward the island where we planned to camp. From what I understood, there is a larger site at the southern tip of this island where most Marj campers stay. But we wanted to check out a different site in the middle of the island's west side. What we found was a simple, almost primitive site, suitable for one or at most two people (plus, of course, a canoe dog). We liked it and decided to make it our home for the night -

This afternoon was our warmest day yet, with temperatures around the mid-70s. It was still plenty warm when we got to camp around 4:00. The west breeze helped cool us, but it was offset by the sun beating directly into our west-facing site. David and I got in the lake to cool off at least twice (or was it three times?). Pooped Piwi curled up for a nap -

But it didn't take long until the puppy was back to her energetic self. Posing like a champ -

"Helping" David purify water -

"Hey, guys, I'm tired again, time to get in the tent!" -

But first the people had to sip a little Maker's Mark as the sky darkened into night -

As we gazed westward over the lake, we were surprised to see two canoes - one tamdem and one solo - coming directly toward us from the direction of the portage we had crossed several hours earlier. Apparently they saw our camp setup from pretty far out, because the canoes suddenly stopped, seemed to confer, and then made a sharp turn toward the south end of the lake. They probably didn't realize that we were not occupying the main campsite at the south end of our island and it was still open. Given the late hour, we hoped they had luck finding another site quickly.

We finished our nightly allotment of bourbon under a smiling moon -

It was still warm when we finally let Piwi into the tent. Fortunately it's a big and airy shelter, especially with the fly off under a clear night sky like we had this night. We all slept a good night's sleep.

Total distrance traveled Day 4: 10.7 miles (including all trips across portages).