Killarney, Sept 4

Lingering over a morning coffee (or was it tea?). Do we really have to go back over that 3km portage again? No need to rush it!

Nathan's walking stick completed. We left it behind because he wasn't interested in lugging it home.

Bags packed.

Life jackets on.

Off we go. Such a beautiful morning!

Ah, this place. We'd spent a lot of time here waiting for people to go back for a second round of things. We seriously have no way around this. We will have to bite the bullet. My shoulders are sore just thinking about carrying the canoe again.

We didn't even bother trying to go through the portage carrying everything at once. Melanie and I took turns with a pack and canoe. When the canoe hurt too much, then we put it down and switched. If you walk fast (and have no pack) you can make it fairly far each time.

Ah, the end at last! Three kilometers is no joke! Melanie and the younger kids waited at the end while the more ambitious of us headed back for the remaining packs and canoes. I think there were two bags and one canoe left to go.

There is a break along the trail that seems like the halfway mark. It looks like you could maybe put your canoe in here and paddle for a ways. But then you get stuck and have to take it all out again. Is it worth it? We don't know because we didn't bother...we just lugged it all the whole way.

I jogged back to help with the extra gear. But there wasn't a whole lot for me to do. I offered some water and snacks, but mostly the guys all thought that I had wasted my time coming back.

Finally, we are all at the right side of the portage. With all of our gear. It's no small thing to then place all that gear into the canoes so that we can paddle on. It can really be awkward, and your muscles are not exactly feeling fresh anymore!

Off we go through David Lake. Just passing through again. No float planes this time.

Ah, the last portage of the day. The small(ish) portage back to Balsam Lake. Fortunately there are no poorly trained dogs here.

Off we go. Like professionals. Just look at those kids all decked out with packs and lifejackets!

At the end of the portage is a bonus snack. One trick I have learned is to have a special sugary snack for after a portage--especially when you are getting tired at the end of the day. Just a bit excitement for the younger kids, an extra kick of energy, and usually we can manage to push ourselves across the lake to our campsite for the night.

Last lake to paddle through! We wait a moment for the other canoes to load up so that we stick together.

Ah! There is our last campsite for Killarney. We hope it's a good one.

It has a nice rocky slide into the water. It's nice and slippery and perfect for sliding into the water.

Us girls try it out. It's not so easy to get back out of the water though as the rocks sure are slippery! The swimming is a bit on the short side as well, as it's not summer anymore, although it's warm enough to tempt us to swim and clear off all the sweat from the hard day.

There used to be a portage out in this direction. We have both a new and an old map, so Matthew decides to go check out that area and try figure out what's up with the change on the map.

There were some newspapers left behind. So we had to check out the funnies. It's almost like being back in civilization again.

We watched a mother merganser and her babies make there way past us. They sure made a racket as they slowly made there way further and further along the shore. Not sure how they manage to avoid hungry predators like that, but it was loads of fun to watch them. The mother had to backtrack twice to collect lost children. Mothers, we don't have it easy.

Last chance for a campfire evening.

And marshmallows. Yum.

One last sunset. It's just so beautiful out here. We are so thankful for having had a chance to step away and "relax".