Saturday, July 17, 2021 I woke up around 4am after a restless sleep and started packing stuff up. After drinking water and coffee and a quick cliff bar we are heading down the Echo to the entry point. We arrived at 6am or so and were on the river at 6:45

The first two portages are easy and beautiful. Noah and Brody have the day pack and fishing tackle bag and do well falling into a good routine. The first people we saw were on Upper Pauness. It appeared all the sites were full on upper and lower Pauness.

To the long portage to Shell we went. Its starting to warm up and we make sure to push the water consumption. We finish the portage into Shell and much to my astonishment there is but one campsite occupied. We paddle across the lake with the giant white glacial erratic as my bearing to get to the Little Shell portage. We make quick work of this portage and the paddle from here to Lynx is an easy one requiring the fat older guys to get out of the boat and line the boat through the narrow connection between Little Shell and Lynx.

Lynx has pretty clear water especially compared to the shallower Shell Lake. Its clear waters have lured me back. We see that the peninsula site is open across the lake to the east and we figure it would be good to catch whatever little breeze there may be, so we make it home. First thing the kids do is jump in the lake. Austin and I opt to work first but you better believe we jumped in soon after our hammocks were hung, and camp set up. We all cool off in the lake for an hour.

This was a reoccurring activity the two days we spent here. A reminder was given about PFDs being worn after this photo was taken.

The site is elevated and if there were a breeze would be great but there really isn’t much shade, so things got toasty. If not for the thick haze from the smoke in the air who knows how much warmer it would have felt like. Towards evening we head out fishing with limited success. Brody hooked up with a Smallmouth near the NE campsite and that was about it other than a few smaller Bass. This campsite was occupied along with the site just north of ours. We get back to camp, eat dinner and get things ready for the night. As dusk came so did the mosquito's…they were deafening and unlike most evenings they did not seem to really let up with time. They were whining and buzzing next to my bug net and ear all night and the ones not by my ear were somehow biting through the hammock fabric anywhere my skin was against it. It was a fun game of being to hot, uncovering, donating blood covering up and repeat.