Day 16: Portages

We continued with Josh, Alex, and Gus today.  We did 51 miles with two tough portages.  The second one was insanely hard and way longer than the advertised 300 yards.  Figure it out MN DNR.  It was also up and down two railroad grades and across a creek with a narrow bridge.  We had to haul all of our gear along these obstacles while walking through a fog of mosquitoes.  Multiple times I had to drop the load I was carrying in order to swat the blood suckers away.  Portaging with other people made for a quicker transition in the long run, but it was probably more tiring.  Rather than completely emptying our canoe like we had been doing for long portages, we left a lot of stuff in it and just put in on Josh's portage wheels.  It was still hard and we couldn't use the wheels the whole time with the railroad grades and the bridge.  Plus, Alex and Gus leave their kayaks fully loaded when they portage.  We helped with one of them and it was extremely heavy.  Those two guys are much stronger than us.  Especially Alex.  He is seriously the strongest man I have ever met.  Hopefully he doesn't read this.  He dragged our canoe out of the water by himself further than Anders and I could have done together.  He played football (O-Line) for awhile at North Dakota so I guess that makes sense.
Tonight was the most tired I have been this whole trip but it feels amazing.  Although it was hard it was also very rewarding.  Lots of miles, two hard portages, and good company make for a great day.
The mosquitoes continue to be an issue.  We ate our dinner, pinto beans, baked beans, corn, and white rice tortillas, in the tent in order to escape them.