Another 6:15am alarm to catch the sunrise. Not as nice as yesterday's at Hatchet Lake. Mosquitoes were still aggressive, so we ate breakfast inside the tent and got moving by 7:50am.

We spent the morning hiking along the ridge separating Chickenbone Lake and Lake Livermore heading into the early morning sun. The evening had been our coldest yet, and as we hiked up the ridge we crossed a noticeable line where the cool are had sunk into the lake's basin at night. Suddenly, it was several degrees warmer. I don't think I'd ever crossed through such an obvious temperature inversion before.

We hiked along the Greenstone Ridge for nearly 6 miles before seeing other people. We started meeting some of last night's Daisy Farm campers where their trail intersected with the Greenstone. Two of these backpackers were headed to Lane Cove tonight, just as we were. I hoped Lane Cove wouldn't be too crowded. So far we hadn't had any problems getting camping spots, but we had avoided some of the most popular sites (Daisy Farm and Threemile).

Throughout the day the ridge grew more barren and our views increased in all directions. These were the sections of the Greenstone I'd seen pictures of, not the tree covered ridge tops on the other side of the island, but the bald rocky slopes with commanding vistas over the island and out to Lake Superior.

The Mount Ojibway lookout tower was an improvement over Ishpeming's. Here we could climb several flights of stairs and overlook the ridge that lay ahead of us and the whole route we'd hiked. We were able to pick out the Rock Harbor lighthouse and the NPS headquarters.

We caught up with a family of five (also headed to Lane Cove) and passed by them when another large group stepped aside who was headed the other direction. It was the largest gathering of people we'd seen since leaving Windigo.

Mount Franklin was over flowing with people when we arrived there, so we headed along the ridge to the Lane Cove trail. The trail takes a steep route down off the ridge in one of the few places were switchbacks seem to have been used on the island. The rest of the trail rolled across the parallel island ridges, crossing marches and streams then small ridge lines. The varied scenery made it one of my favorite sections of trail.

We had our first view of Lane Cove before reaching the campgrounds and noticed some canoeists in the cove. I was really getting worried about finding a full campground. I told Grant we wanted to find a nice shady spot away from the lake where the mosquitoes might not be so bad. We arrived at the campground sign with a layout of the sites and noticed that all of them were right on the shore. We quickly found a nice site and claimed it, then had a look at the other unclaimed ones only to decide that our first choice was the best.

We took off our boots and wandered about on the smooth rocks under the lake's shallow shore. The water was colder than in the inland lakes, but warm enough in the shallows. We saw all the other backpackers we'd met arrive a bit later, and Lane Cove was now full.

I was pleased to find that the mosquitoes were less numerous and less aggressive than at Chickenbone Lake. One group of backpackers we'd met earlier today had warned us that Lane Cove mosquitoes were very bad. Tonight we were able to eat our dinner outside and watch the sunset across the cove for much of the evening. A few clouds and a direct view made tonight's sunset the best yet.