We awoke well before six and in no time packed the car for the trip to Entry point 27. We filled our belly with a wonderful breakfast at Vertin’s and took off east out of town on Hwy 169. The canoe was filled with gear, the car parked and locked and we were off paddling at 7:45. There was a bit of chop on the water and some overcast skies but we were no longer dreaming about a trip - we had begun! When approaching the first island on Snow bank to the Parent Lake portage a suddenly grayer than before sky produced a light rain. We stopped at the island to get into rain gear but in just those few minutes we were wet for what was to the rest of the day.

The 80 rod portage to Parent Lake was uneventful though slick in the light rain that continued. When we loaded up and pushed off it was as if the cloud ceiling had been pulled down and the misting and now windier rain was cutting our visibility. Crossing Parent Lake was not as pleasant as we’d figured it to be.

The portage landing we headed for was very rocky but the 85 rod portage was getting really dark at times when the trees were close in on the trail. As we started across Disappointment the first couple of campsites were taken and at both of them someone walked down to the lake edge to watch us pass by. I supposed some of them had chosen a layover day with the unpleasant weather. With plans to go on farther but with the misty and windy rain continuing we began thinking how it was still early but might we want to find a spot to lay-up and see what the weather was going to do?

We spotted an open site and both agreed to go and check it out. It was with a what the heck approach that we unloaded gear and started to pitch camp which was a good decision because we just beat another group to the site by a few minutes and we discovered later when the weather cleared that all the other sites around us were taken. We'd decided to stop for the day. I know we hadn’t gone very far but we were discovering that the loop we had planned from Snowbank to Lake One was going to fall victim to a number of planning changes.

Around 2:00 the rain stopped and with some light chop on the water we set out to fish. Both of us latched onto small mouth bass and then Jeff had a decent northern tear into a crank bait. His brand new folding net fell victim to that fish as it broke a rivet during the wild thrashing. When we got back to camp I found part of the net back in the stern by my feet. I felt really bad that his hot lure went flying into oblivion when his line snapped on the next cast. We drifted past what seemed to be an unconcerned eagle for a while but I'm sure he was fully aware of the humans swinging those long whippy sticks around below him.

Supper was sweet and sour pork with rice. The total fire ban meant we had to cook over a stove so it wasn’t quite what we’d hoped for but the weather was improving. We fished after supper without much luck however the clouds started to break and we saw the sun and got a chance to dry out and feel “warm” for the first time today. The sunset was gorgeous and made us glad we had stopped here if only to witness the colorful close of day.