Day four – we got on the water at 9:05am with bright sun and blue skies. The first portage into Little Beartrack was pure magic. Wet on the Gun side with little pools of water and wet throughout, it was definitely technical, with little boulder fields placed all throughout the portage. There was tons of moss and mushrooms, however, and big cliffs about halfway through, with water dripping down into little pools. This portage felt like something out of a Lord of the Rings movie. The landing on the Little Beartrack was small and poor for loading, but the view out onto the lake was awesome, essentially being a narrow channel with little points along the way.

Beartrack was cool but maybe a little bland, as it’s a big round bowl, with few points or islands to create intrigue. Plus we were trying to haul and make it to Gebe so maybe we just didn’t fully appreciate it. This is also when we noticed a group materialized behind us. We left the gorgeous landing in the little moosey-looking bay and headed to Thumb. Some folks have warned of this portage, but I found it quite manageable traveling east, and with all of the open mossy areas, it too felt like something straight out of Lord of the Rings. The group behind us was two dads with three young boys with nothing but food and fishing rods, day tripping from Fat to Finger, and we let them fly right past us (we were double carrying anyway). I honestly think the Thumb portage was one of my favorites of the trip – call me crazy!

We finally paddled through a channel into Finger and I was smitten. Points, islands, bays, reeds, big rocks, towering pines… what’s not to like!? I felt a momentary sadness knowing that I wouldn’t be able to spend any time here, and that it’s not easy to get to, so another trip to visit it will have to be very intentional, specifically to spend time on Finger. Still, I enjoyed its beauty as we paddled to the south island campsite, hoping it would be open for a shore lunch.

There we found the group of dads and kids, who asked if we wanted to camp there, and I said no, we were just hoping to check it out for lunch but would find another site. The one dad said we were more than welcome to join them, and maybe out of a selfish desire to check out the site that I knew was highly rated on this lake I hoped to return to, I took him up on his offer. There was a nice landing for both canoes and we reviewed the remainder of our route while we chatted with the dads (who were from South Dakota but now live in Nebraska). They told me when they were younger, they went from EP14 to Finger, counterclockwise, in a single day… I just about fainted at the idea of that much travel on what I thought to be a moderately rugged route, especially after I did all of the portages to get there, later in the trip. If those guys are reading this, thank you so much for your generosity and sanity check on the rest of the travel to Gebe!

I was a little concerned about low water in Finger/Pocket/Gebe Creeks, but thankfully we had enough water to paddle most of the time, with only the occasional touching of the soft muddy bottom. We (I) made a slight navigational error and took us into a small bay where Finger Creek flows out, as I couldn't tell if the portage landing started there or on the west side of the peninsula. No matter - it set us back 5 minutes. The rapids on the Finger Creek portage were a real treat, and with approving nods from the group, I couldn't help but make the walk back to take some photos.

The final portage of the day was the staircase to Gebe, and it still lived up to its reputation. Honestly though, it’s quite pretty, and the sound of the falls adds to the ambiance. Just keep pushing, focus on your breath, and it’s over before you know it! Too bad there is an entire petrified tree blocking the already-boulder-blocked landing on the Gebe side. That made loading interesting.

Tired, hot, and sweaty, we managed to snag the primary 4star site on Gebe (NW corner) with its shallow sand flat landing, with enough daylight to set up shelters and take photos of the sunset during dinner, after about 8.5 hours underway. I hadn’t mentioned yet, but we did dehydrated dinners for the entire trip. They pack down small, you don’t have to do dishes, and they’re dead simple to prepare, so you can spend your time fishing/exploring instead of cooking and doing dishes. I love a good meal, more than most I think, but on canoe trips, I prefer to spend my time doing literally anything other than cooking/eating/cleaning which are just time sucking chores for me.

We were able to have a fire thanks to the previous campers who left us enough wood that we actually still had some left over afterwards. Boy oh boy is it nice to find some firewood at the end of a long day where you don’t have the energy or time to find and process firewood. The moonrise caught us off guard, too, rising slowly on the horizon as a blood red crescent. At first we didn’t know what it was because it was so red. By the time I had the camera set up on a tripod, the moon had risen to be more of a deep orange, but it was still super cool, and I got some nice photos. We stayed up late, shared some sips, and gazed at the stars. It was another tiring but rewarding day in canoe country.

~Little Beartrack Lake, Beartrack Lake, Thumb Lake, Finger Lake, Pocket Lake, Ge-be-on-e-quet Lake