There’s an old log trap-line cabin on the southern shore of Olive. The cabin was burned in the fire, the aluminum roof and window melted onto the ground in odd twisted lumps. I sit in the corner of the cabin and wonder how it was years ago when the trapper worked through the winter. The land is just starting to come back here.

Bob and I follow the burned southern shore then turn north to round the big peninsula in the middle of olive. There's a campsite, then another at the narrows with one of Howard Holtman's fire rings. That usually means that the fishing’s good. I expect that the narrow gap in the middle of the lake concentrates the fish.

The western part of the lakeshore is not burned. We cross Olive and enter the Sabourin River. The land seems taller here, the shores rise higher and more rocks are exposed. The Sabourin is wide and slow with the current against us again. Ducks and loons are here, and Bob points out the different species as they scatter in front of us.

A hawk screams and circles as we pull up to the 775 meter portage. The landing is nice and the land rises into mature forest. The ground is open and beautiful.

The river here is about 12 meters wide. We have to watch closely now to find the portages, and downed trees sometimes change the landscape. It’s sunny and clear and warm.

Before the last portage into Bigshell, Bob and I run into a section of narrow water bordered by tag alder bushes. The alder grows up vertically, then falls out parallel to the ground – probably to gather more light or to gain territory from other competing plants. Our channel narrows and we start to wonder if we’ll be pushing the canoe through this last stretch. It never gets that bad and by five o’clock the river opens and we’re in Bigshell Lake.

The narrow channel protected us from the wind, but it catches us now on the open water. Waves slap into our bow and we have to paddle hard to get anywhere. Fortunately there’s an island campsite near the mouth of the river. It isn’t until we have the tent up that we realize that crows are nesting nearby. Every time we make a noise or make smoke, they start their raucous caw-caw yell. By evening the wind dies a bit. Bob and I catch two small jack casting from the island and two more while trolling the shore where the river comes in. The black flies and mosquitoes are out again.

As we sit on the shore of our island, Bob points into the sky. It takes me a minute to find the chase that’s happening high above our heads. It’s a crow and an eagle. The crow is chasing the eagle, snipping at it’s tail as they circle higher and higher in the afternoon sky. The chase climbs so high that the birds disappear. I’m thinking that the show is over, but Bob tells me to wait. There’s one more thing to see. About three minutes later, the crow comes down, diving with wings held in, falling at a tremendous rate. A minute later the triumphant pursuer is back at our island. We see her companions later on the moss covered shore across the water from our camp. They’re tearing up the moss, tossing it around in their search for food. It’s nice to confirm the cause of the mess we saw on the shores of our first campsite.

Bigshell has many stands of birch trees. When you look at the shores, light birch and dark pine make a mosaic of green. The shores are high with rock cliffs here and there. Bob and I make a big circle of the southern part of Bigshell. We find the remains of an old wood strip canoe and a trap line cabin. We end up at the cliff face on the south side of the lake. There’s a sandy beach there and while Bob takes a chilly swim, I walk into the dense alder forest to the low end of the cliff, then make my way to the top.

It's windy and the waves are up as we head back to our island camp. Our canoe is ballasted with about twenty-five kilograms (55 pounds) of gear, enough stuff to give us food and shelter for the night if we get windbound. It's a hard pull but we make it back without any problems.

I took another bucket bath today. The water is so cold that my skin got numb. It was windy too, so I was glad when it was over. I did work up an appetite though, and we had plenty of fish to eat. Fish for lunch, fish for supper, and a bit to hang with the food pack for tomorrow’s breakfast. It’s still sunny with just a few clouds. The low tonight will be about 5 and tomorrow it might be 20 or 24.