PJ,

I beleive the Bud 2 Fern Portage is about 400yards or so. If it is late in the afternoon and the site on Bud is empty and we are all tired, we might just stop for the day.

I'm with you on taking it easy, except the first day. I want to push them hard the first day to see what the group is capable of, it will help me gauge if we can continue the planned route or if we will need make a route adjustment. After the first day we will then take it easy, setting up camp mid afternoon or so giving us plenty of time for exploring and fishing.

Two years ago, took the wife, daughter (14) & son (12), entered at BeaverHouse, we didn't even make it a third way down Quetico Lake (southern part) before we needed to set up camp, wind, rain and cold kind of zapped everyone's energy. I was thinking, oh crap, what am I gonna do. But they rallied, by the end of the trip we did Jesse (far west side) to Batch (CS at the north side of the narrows, across from the portage) in a day and still had time to spare. Might not have been a big day for some but it was for my family, I was real proud of what we were able to do.

Kurt