The Bushwackers Rendezvous started in April for me.  I went up to Sheridan around the third week in April to scout out a portage into Mitch Lake. (Mitch is the name of the long narrow lake sitting with two other lakes, just west and north of Sheridan).  I worked my way up a small drainage from a local beaver pond and over the ridge in a westward direction.  The terrain suggested an old portage or well used Moose trail, with a beaten path clearly visible through the brush.  Going so early allowed me to be able to see through the still leaf-less brush making it easier to get and keep my bearings.  We estimated later that this portage is about 130 rods in length.
When Bushwacking time came, we headed in on the 9th of June.  Taking our time, we left Moose Lake landing around five in the evening and paddled ourselves up to Sucker Lake near Prairie Portage to camp overnight.  In the morning the guys (Dan and Mike) stayed in camp and I paddled over the PP to pick up my permit.  Back at camp we finished packing and headed out on Birch Lake, paddled to Carp portage, then half way through Carp to a little island I call Otter Palace, to camp for the night.  
Next day we paddled to Sheridan portage and had just finished getting our gear up that short but steep hill when another canoe came up and put in down the shore from us.  Dan immediately spotted the QJ sticker on its bow and I went over to see who it was.  Turned out it was Kingfisher and Paddlemaker; hugs and introductions to the guys followed.  They were planning to camp on Sheridan, we planned to move on at least to Mitch before the end of the day.  By now it was lightly sprinkling rain.
KF and PM went to find a campsite.  We crossed the lake and pulled up on shore where the "trail" started.  After getting our stuff and kayaks off shore, up a steep little hill, and into a grove of cedars at the shoreline KF and PM arrived to walk the trail with us.  They helped us portage some of our gear and in a couple trips we were at the shore of Mitch, but on top of a small abrupt ridge which dropped about 20 feet into the lake in two stages.  We slid the kayaks half way down, packed them, and slid them further down into the water.  The whole portage time was punctuated by light rain which eventually turned into a steady drenching rain and by the end we were all soaking wet.  KF and PM headed back to fish and camp on Sheridan.  We set off northerly for the far end of Mitch, still paddling in steady rain, and thinking we might find a campsite on this lake.  No campsite struck us as do-able and we ended up dragging our boats into another grove of cedars at the end of the lake.  By now we were both wet and cold.  We pitched one of our tarps among the cedars, bailed all our gear under it, and stripped off our wet clothes and got into something dry.  Coffee and lunch revived our spirits, the sun was finally trying to come out and the rain had stopped.  After sitting around about an hour we were getting bored and were ready to tackle the next portage into Magie Lake.