After spending the night at Arrowhead, we broke camp early the next morning and drove the remaining four hours to the Brent access site. The sky was blue and skudded small clouds. The ranger at the Brent gate informed us there was a high likelihood of rain throughout the week, which proved to be too true.

By the time we arrived at Brent and rented our canoe, the wind was churning up three foot swells on Cedar Lake. We took Jake's advice (the proprietor of Brent store), and paddled along the north shore of Cedar lake until we came to the narrowest crossing point opposite the Petawawa River . On the east end of the park, the Petawawa is a powerful river with class five rapids; here, it is throttled considerably by the rugged terrain, tumbling 50 feet or more over blackened boulders into Cedar Lake.

After two brief portages and paddles up the Petawawa, we came upon our first major challenge of the trip: a nearly 2400 meter portage, the majority of which is uphill along a rock- and timber-strewn trail. Being the first major portage of the trip, and considering our fully loaded (overloaded?) packs, we were pretty much wiped out by the time we completed the trek.

It was not without its rewards, however. At about 1700 meters, Joe was in front and I behind with the canoe, when he called for my attention. I wrestled the canoe to the ground, and caught up with Joe. He had spotted a marten which had climbed a tree in a slight clearing, affording incredible opportunities for photographs. We were excited about this siting since martens tend to be nocturnal, and rare to see at all. The marten is from the weasel family, related to otters, weasels, fishers and wolverines. This particular specimen had dark brown fur with characteristic orange belly fur. It was rather inquisitive, and not at all intimidated by us.

We paused early that day due to the grueling portage and our heavy packs. We camped at the end of the portage, and spent the rest of the day exploring and photographing the rapids and wildlife.