Gently sloping ... yeah right!

The guide said this portage was steep at first, but had a slow, gradual descent to Cherry Lake. Unlike other times, where it pretty much described things like they were, this portage was really not like the description. Sure, there was a long steep hill up from Hanson Lake. However, it plunged nearly as steeply into two valleys before rising high again and descending quickly to Cherry Lake. It was about 3/8 of a mile long, too. I think we switched off on the canoe carrying, as going down those hills (and up 'em too) was not comfy on the shoulders. At least there were padded shoulder rests for the canoe. This portage was also pretty rocky, so that added to the difficulty.

We scouted the trail out ahead while we carried 'The torture rack' along with Shawn and Tracy's backpacks. The torture rack was the duffel bag I carried my stuff in. I didn't have the dough to snag a backpack, so I used this instead. It was really, REALLY annoying to carry, 'cause it was incredibly heavy and had no easy way to carry it. We kinda slung the two straps over our shoulders and attempted to carry it like a backpack, and it was pretty painful, so we called it the torture rack. Thankfully, scouting the trail ahead showed us prime locations for switching the canoe portager. After two trips there and back, we were ready to head into Cherry Lake. Thankfully this was our only portage today!

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