This was my third guided trip. The instructions were to portage as little as possible (not really my style, but I managed.) We stayed on Basswood for most of the week. Unfortunately it was a very windy week and we fought it most every day.
Day 1: We headed in, worked our way through Moose, Wind and into Basswood. We pushed hard on the mileage on day one and made it to a campsite on Back Bay. It really was a nice site (#1597.) We had a nice little beach and some good tent pads. The group pushed themselves the first day, but were rewarded with a rest at day's end.
Day 2: We portaged into Frog bay and into main Basswood. The wind was really hauling at this point. We stayed on the inside of Washington Island and ate lunch at the far side. We had to cross some big water to get to camp for the night, and really fought the wind all the way. We spent the night at campsite #1624 which is tucked into a little cove out of the wind some. There was a ton of garbage at this site, but I did a good clean out and hauled all of it out with us.
Day 3: We had a relaxed day and worked our way over to the falls. We took the second site on the portage since the first was full. The second site is more private than the first, but is still a really nice site. The biff is again akward as anyone coming from the portage walks right by it to get to the site. The group had tons of fun swimming and relaxing.
Day 4: We worked our way down Basswood and into Pipestone Bay. We found an island site (1611) that was really spacious. The group spent some time relaxing while I got firewood (and stung by a wasp.) They let me go have some solo time, so I took a little jaunt over to Azion. I don't know why there is a portage to Azion, but it is one heck of a portage. Straight up the hill, lots of thorns and poison ivy, but, in its own way, a pretty lake. I headed back to my group, they swam some, and it was out the next morning.
Day 5: We headed out to pick up at Fall. Nothing to interesting except me hurting myself on the very last portage (a motor boat portage for that matter.) How anticlimatic.
