Wednesday, July 07, 2021 Had oatmeal tea/coffee and packed up for the trip out. Loaded canoe and paddled the 10 rods to the portage. That was the other reason I liked this campsite, it was a quick exit. We loaded up in Ensign and paddled the 4 miles to the Splash portage. THe NE wind helped push us to the end. Glad we weren't going the other way. We got to the Splash to Newfound portage checked to see if we could wait for the tow at the other end. Scouts were starting to arrive, so we got our gear to the other end and staged it off to the side of the trail up above the landing to allow them to get through. We knew it would take us a while to get all our gear past the rocks to where the canoe would float and didn't want to risk falling on the rocks by hurrying. Two groups went by. It was their last day and were pretty stoked to be headed back to base. We carried the canoe out and went back for the gear. We floated the canoe off the landing and sat on a log that looked like it was secured there by others waiting for tows.
CBO picked us up a little early and we got back to base for showers and packed up the car. We had eaten a PB&J sandwich while waiting, and made it to Gordy's HiHat for a shake about 3pm. It was the day after Mr Lundquist had passed away, so it may have been busier than normal. We went to the Gordy's warming house next door and saved some time. Red Cabin Custard had limited hours, or we would have stopped there. We drove back to Houston stopping in Minneapolis, and Rogers again. No drama, but really tiring and hard to sit that long with tired muscles and lack of sleep. I think we are going to fly next time. Ashigan 54R Ensign 11R Splash 40R Newfound 5.8 miles total 4.8 paddling 1 mile portaging
I had originally planned to go to Sagus and Kianna and back out, but we were more worn out getting to a less crowded area than we expected and Sagus looked like it had more swampy areas around it. The heat made mosquitoes more concerning, so we went south towards Kianna. It's a neat little lake and would be good for people that want their own lake to be on even though it can be accessed from Insula. It seemed a little spooky to me. Not sure why, I guess just the absence of people finally. Alworth looked was pretty and didn't seem to get many people either. We really need to work on streamling our meals a bit. We enjoy cooking, but it cuts down on relaxation time in the evening and getting to bed earlier for early wake ups. The sleep deprivation was probably our biggest problem. Also, we definitely need to edit to reduce the bulk of the gear. With just 2 people I don't think we will ever get down to single portaging, but we had some duplication we could do without, even though we did use the spare reel. We could probably make do, though. Thomas felt pretty empty most of the time, and surprisingly we didn't see many people go by the campsite near the portage on Ashigan. The evening was very quiet, but we left before the morning parade started. Ima and Jordan were the busiest.

The tow to Splash made a big difference, though I felt a little guilty. Going out there was a mass of canoes working their way up Moose lake towards Ensign. Dan said they looked like traffic cones due to all the orange life vests. We left about 11:15 and most were still about 30 minutes or more away from Ensign. I probably wouldn't do this route again due to the number of crews going through, but it was a nice enough area with some interesting areas. The falls near Thomas were a surprise since Cattyman overshadows them.