Saturday, September 29, 2018 The morning started cold, mid 20's, with some frost and sleet on the ground that had fallen in the early morning. By 9:30am it was partly sunny and stayed that way all day and temps reached the low 40's for highs today. With the sun out I threw my Luci lamps out, cleaned and aired my packs out and enjoyed basking in the warm sunlight for the rest of the morning. As my plan was to move only a few lakes away from here I was in no rush to get moving. Was packed up and on the water just after noon. I took my time and paddled around Cherry Lake and enjoyed to suns warmth, the view if it lighting up the fall colors and the steep cliffs and hills surrounding Cherry. So todays route is short by design. Cherry to Lunar, Lake of the Clouds, Rivalry and finishing at the island camp site on Gijikiki lake. I have been eyeing these lakes for more than 10 years on maps, and would enjoy them at a relaxing pace. Cherry-Lunar 45r portage starts with a steep hill then you come to a marshy/flooded area. Following the left shore until you come to the bottom of what looks like a steep, dry(now) river bed. Portage is up that rocky dry bed and Lunar is not far from the top of that. During wetter seasons this portage may be a lot more challenging. Taking the portage it's route is not obvious, requiring a bit of scouting in 2 places. 1. When I got to the marsh, do I cross it? Do skirt it to the right? left? All 3 seemed to be possibilities. The answer is skirt the left side of marsh 2. I followed it to the left but for how long? I came to what looked like a dry, steep, rocky, riverbed, coming down a steep hill. Do I go up that? Do I keep skirting the marsh? I dropped my pack there and hiked up the river bed. Sure enough not far from the top was the Lunar lake landing. I have to admit this was my best day of the trip. The sun, the fact that I was finally seeing these beautiful, little, high, rocky, out of the way lakes, with there difficult portages and in fall colors was amazing. I enjoyed all the lakes with a slow deliberate paddle around them. The Lunar to Lake of the Clouds 10r portage was short and up hill a bit. The LotC to Rivalry 75r was less traveled, rocky and a bit wet, but not bad. The LotC's side skirts a cliff with huge boulder field. Rivalry to Gijikiki 35r starts with a mud pit landing, and is a much less traveled, overgrown portage. It has a very steep hill going down to Gijikiki that is all dirt. In wetter seasons I could see this becoming a mud slide, but today it was nice a dry steep dirt hill. Gijikiki has a small rocky landing. I took the island site on Gijikiki as I had stayed at the north site 6-7 years ago the only other time I had been on this lake. It took me 3.5 hrs to move the total of about 2 miles today. These portages are not "normal" portages and should be given extra time to find, follow and even clear brush on this route. Also extra time to enjoy these beautiful lakes. I had a short cedar wood fire this evening, but I had cut and split the wood too late in the day so it was smoky and hard to keep going. It was a clear sky night so I sat out and start gazed until the cold seeped into my bones and had me running for the tent. It was starting to get cold enough that if I stopped moving for very long in the evenings my feet would turn to blocks of ice. What was I thinking not packing insulated boots. I started to develop a ritual when getting in the tent at night to warm up. But even before I go to the tent I would do some kind of exercise to warm up, jumping jacks, push ups, and pace around camp usually. It probably took a good 20-30 minutes total. Let me add 1 man tents are not "roomy" and just dressing in one is a chore in itself, like getting in and out of a straight jacket. My ritual was, crawl inside freezing bag and wait a few minutes for it to warm. Pull off socks and and rub feet for 5-10 minutes. Lay back down and see if they stay warm, if not repeat rubbing them. slip off pants down to feet to warm feet and foot box of bag further, take jacket off. I put my long johns on hours before bed time so they are warm and I don't have to put them on cold. Then I organized the cloths I would be putting on in the morning so that I could wake up and stick them in the sleeping bag with me to warm before I had to put them on. I also brought an empty wide mouth gatorade bottle with me so that I would not have to get out of my bag at night if I needed to go to the bathroom. If I did use it I learned that it then became a hot water bottle for the next 15-20 minutes, and for the rest of the trip I took advantage of that fact more nights than not. That bottle became crucial to me as the trip progressed.