Richard de Candole, author of Toughest School in North America, reads from a diary he kept back in 1965 while doing the Grand Portage, a trip by canoe from Thunder Bay, Ontario to Selkirk, Manitoba. Pierre, who did his Grand Portage in 1974, nine years later, compares and contrasts his experience with Richard's. The 1965 brigade was led by Ted Byfield. Pierre's brigade was led by Peter Jackson, who was a paddler in 1965.

In this episode we discover a pitfall - leaving a canoe behind on the Grand. Richard makes it to just before the Height of Land.