Monday, January 09, 2023 The next morning found us each checking bumps, bruises, and blisters and donning our relatively wet gear from the day before. The daytime temps were too warm to keep gear truly dry. It was a slow pack up before we headed for the portage. We knew we had more than half of the portage still to go and, with the snow depth we observed before, we knew it would be a tiring push. It's a steep climb out of the beaver pond and we quickly realized that we weren't going to be able to break trail with the sleds. One of our group members elected to go on ahead and break trail, but with his narrow modern snowshoes, the responsibility also fell back to me. The blister was tender, but the trail had to be broken. I charged on ahead with my classics (the bindings I had issues with the day before) since the moderns were too narrow to make a sufficient trail for the sleds. There were some daunting ups and downs before one long uphill led to a brushy stretch. After the brushy stretch, it was a long downhill to Zenith. I was glad to see the lake, but I knew that, somewhere far behind me, my crew was working hard to make some progress with the sleds. I turned and headed back to help. After about 10 minutes, I ran into the other trail breaker, still making progress though punching through the big tracks made my the classics. Five minutes after him, I ran into the first sled-puller. "Dan-in-the-box" is big and strong and, despite sore knees at this point in the trip, seemed hardly to notice the sled behind him. He chugged on ahead, now wisely using a walking stick for support. Awhile back from him, I ran into Little Grumpy who, ever the stubborn one, was chugging on with a very heavy sled. We paused and took a snack break together. I wished him well before heading back for one of the other two sleds. I passed the toboggan, figuring I should go for the sled furthest back on the portage. I found it and set off to make whatever progress I could make. It wasn't long before I hit the steep downhill. Of course, the sled jumped trail and overturned about halfway down. That's when I realized that the sled had an open baguette in it! Why is there just a random loaf of bread here? Haha. I had a good chuckle to myself before piling gear back into the sled and continuing off down the trail. I ran into my other trail breaker after another ten minutes or so and sent him back for the final sled. Soon enough, I was on the uphill and even with a walking stick this section required the occasional hands and knees crawl up hill. The sleds were heavy and the snow slick, it was a battle for every foot. I ran into Little Grumpy again part way up the hill. I sent him back to our fourth crew member to help with the final sled while I marched up the hill. I finally reached the down tree which I knew marked the peak. Then it was downhill to Zenith. We all grouped up near the lake for the final, small drop down to the ice where we gathered for lunch. It took over three hours from the beaver pond, but we had finally completed the last leg of the long portage! On Zenith, we worked through the creek. There was a portage before Frederick with open water. We cautiously filled up bottles there and purified them well. There was another open spot to avoid on the Frederick side which took some acrobatics to get snowshoer and sled across. Frederick was a beautiful lake, but it was definitely growing late in the afternoon by the time we reached the portage where I took my turn breaking trail. The first section is steep enough and took some work to find my way through the unbroken trail. Before me stretched this daunting steep section. I can imagine it's tough with a canoe, but with snowshoes and a heavy sled, this was a nearly insurmountable obstacle. Thankfully, we had come prepared. What would follow was the most amusing system for pulling sleds up a hill. At the top was an anchor connected to a tree. One end of the rope would be hooked to the sled the other would be hooked to a person. As a person at the top took out slack, the person with the end of the rope would graciously fall down the hill while the sled went up the hill. We would then set the sled off to the side, the ropes would get switched, a new sled would get hooked up, and we continued this rotation until all sleds were perched on top of the hill. From the top of the Frederick portage, there are some tight turns and a couple steep up and downs before a dramatic fall down the hill to Wine. Tackling this steep downhill in the dark by headlamp, we couldn't help but grimace at the thought of doing this the other direction in a few days' time. We worked our way down the southern shore of Wine Lake looking for a spot with ample firewood. We settled near the SW corner and began the process of stamping out a spot, getting the tent set, and spreading out in search of firewood. I headed north along the eastern shore which proved to be incredibly steep. I did finally spot one back from shore that was dead, down, and dry. It was a good scramble up to retrieve it and saw it free, but I was happy to find good wood to drag back to camp with me. It was satisfying to sit down in a warm tent finally and appreciate the campsite we had earned for ourselves. Now we could enjoy three nights of fishing and exploring.~Zenith Lake, Frederick Lake, Wine Lake

Lakes Traveled:   Zenith Lake, Frederick Lake, Wine Lake,