We woke up to a bright, warm, and welcoming sunny morning. How comforting and promising it was!

Side story: Feng woke me up in the middle of night with a low but worrisome voice. I opened my eyes to a tent totally lighted up. I found my heart pounding. Somebody shining a super flashlight on our tent? what’s happening then? Animal found? Aliens here? Pull all my bravery together, I opened the tent and looked out. A super moon, right in front of me, right on top of the lake. This is why people love travel and to a wild or remote place, even it’s sometimes tough or even risky. The reward is worth it. It reminded me the moonlight pine woods we camped in Banff. They were like dreams.

The sun was so welcoming after a gray and shaky day on the water. We felt so happy. Feng got up and hang our wet clothes up to dry. He cooked breakfast the same time. Because all my clothes were on the line to dry, I had excuse to curl up in bed and enjoy a sunny and lazy morning.

After breakfast, we packed and got on the water again.

If you predicted it was going to be a sunny and beautiful day from the morning sun, boy, you didn’t know Algonquin in spring.

The sun disappeared. The wind started again, worse than yesterday.

A short paddle across Merchant Lake to portage site was okay. When we got on Happy Isle Lake, the wind was getting stronger, and we started to see waves. Happy Isle Lake wasn’t happy. It was mad.

Our little boat was rocking badly. Feng was alerted. He said we must get to the closest shore. Then we saw a natural harbor made by a tiny island, and rushed over.

The pine and ceder trees on this tiny island were mad too. They were crying and roaring. This little calm harbor felt home. And we were talking about the Chinese name of harbor 港湾. How we sometimes refer both home and mom as 港湾. What a warm and comforting word it was, and how much it meant to people who work or live on sea.

A guy from a nearby campsite spotted us. He waved and shout to invite us to go over to his place. We must have looked like terrified birds. But we waved no.

We waited till the wind calm down a bit, and left the harbor unwillingly. It was still windy. Our boat was still crashing waves. We’d never been boating like this.

Not long after, we found ourselves looking for shore again.

We perched at the lake shore, holding on trees to steady us from blowing away.

We waited and waited, but this was no sign that the wind would stop.

We tied up the boat to a tree, and climbed up to the island.

We explored around, and found that we might be able to drag the boat up and across the woods, and then launch from the other side of the island. This would avoid the most violent part around the corner of this island.

Funny that we met the same young people who took the same water taxi two days ago. That was their campsite. They were packing to leave.

We struggled over the island with our boat. We joked that what a unique portage we did.

It was still windy. Our boat rocked over Happy Isle and finally made it to the long portage.

Feng was exhausted. We both were very tired from the labor and as well as the scary experience on the water.

So many people were on this trail. Everybody was going home. And everyone looked exhausted and untidy.

The trail was muddier from the rain yesterday. I had to try hard to keep balanced, so try to imagine Feng with the boat on him and or the other boat carriers.

The water taxi would come and pick us up at 3:30, so we had planned to paddle the Hailstorm Creek wetland before we went to the water taxi. Plan was just a plan. At the end, we barely made it to the pick up point, let alone Hailstorm Creek.

We reached at the water taxi spot at 3:30! can you believe this?

Totally relieved.

We had hot chocolate at portage store to steady our shake souls.