The second week of September Fred, Tom, Dave and Mitch traveled to Ely, Minnesota, the location of Piragis Northwoods Outfitting (owner Steve from Athol, MA) and jumping off point for the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness (part of Superior National Forest) and Quetico Provincial Park. Their combined area is approx two-thirds that of Vermont. We last-mealed on Walleye, then were driven/towed the following day to Prairie Portage, the Canadian Port of Entry, to paddle/portage a generally clockwise route beginning and ending in the huge Basswood Lake, with a clockwise loop through the "S" Lakes: South, Shade, Summer, Sultry and Silence. Most of the return was through the very long Agnes Lake, with a morning detour to Jeff Lake and a short hike along the Louisa Falls, which we declined to portage. There are a lot of lakes.
We had excellent weather and even better campsites, each a "ten". We typically checked two or three sites before selecting the best, all on promontories or islands and with something like a 270 degree view. Expecting rain overnight, we use a more sheltered site the last evening. We then set up camp before an alfresco, warm, swim and preparing dinner per our canoe duty roster. We afterward watched the sun set and the moon rise with Mars accompaniment and the daily treatise about moonrise timing and its impact on everything else going on in our solar system. (This is an esoteric astronomical discussion topic bolstered with many facts and few conclusions. :) ed.)
After our fine, moon and Mars-lit sleep, we would breakfast and paddle on to the next day's adventure, covering some 40 miles of paddling and a couple miles of portaging in the six days and five nights allotted to the trip. Excepting the start and finish, and two long portages the next-to-last day, we saw perhaps three canoes daily and grew peevish when there was another light in view of our campsites.
No motors. Many Loons.