The day started out decently enough camping the night prior at FENSKE LAKE CAMPGROUND, a nice short drive to the EP. Had a quick breakfast, cup of Joe and filled up on water to head off to Mudro. Upon our arrival the parking lot was the fullest I have ever seen requiring us to park in the overflow lot (which I honestly didn't even know was up there). Luckily several large groups were coming out as we were putting in so what at first I was worried about crowding was quickly eased. This was my 6th trip to the BWCA and my wife and kids 2nd but we have plenty of other canoe experience and pack/prep the canoe for single portages. MY friends 2nd trip and his boys first ever of any kind so there were some growing pains to get the day started. We ended up launching about 2 hours behind schedule. Normally this wouldn't be an issue but we had a Mudro restricted permit and planned to head up through horse river to lower basswood falls on day one. After several more setbacks with the portages and disorganization, a little lack of motivation and some general crying we powered through. Thankfully the river was up from previous years and we only had to portage 3 times making it a 6 portage day total. The grass after the last portage though was more than the kids had bargained for. We had been talking to others on the way out and sounded like lower basswood was promising for a campsite, but when we got there several hours behind schedule around 7-7:30pm those sites were long gone, even the one at the top of the falls. Luckily the one across the lake on the point was open. Less than ideal for sure as there was no usable wood around but it would work for the night. So we set up camp hurriedly, made dinner and prepped for the night. We expected some rain for the night but little did we know what was coming....

12:30am. Thunderstorm one rolls through. I have been in some storms in a tent the worst being in the Everglades when I was pretty sure it the tent was going to get ripped off... This storm was a close second as we woke up to the tent coming down on us from the wind, a canvas bucket came flying across the site and hit the tent, as well as a branch from the nearby tree. Luckily no damage.  Endless lightning for about 4 or so hours random gusts of intense wind and a good round of hail mixed in all made for a fantastically relaxing first nights sleep.... Nope no sleep. We finally got up about 730 to stuff strewn all around the campsite, anything that wasn't tied down went for a ride. Chairs, clothes, towels etc... but best of all was my buddy said he didn't need to flip his canoe for the night thought it would be just fine. He woke up to a canoe full of water and me laughing at him. After the cleanup we made a fire to start breakfast and a stiff cup of Coffee obviously led the charge of the day. We packed up and headed off through the basswood falls portage a quick 5 min paddle away. The goal for the day was the top of Wednesday bay hopefully the island just before the curve towards Thursday. Enjoyed the pictographs, a nice tail wind for the day and the current in our favor so despite the later than wanted start we made good time up into crooked. After scouting out a site on the bay between Wednesday and Thursday bay we decided to see if anything on Thursday bay was open as we wanted to fish there. Sent a team to the open site and my wife, son and I went to explore Thursday. Once we rounded the tip, it was head on into white caps so the decision was easily made to turn back as we knew the rookies would not make it through unscathed. Set up camp at a nice site and ended up having the whole bay to ourselves for the next 3 days. 

Bummed around camp and went fishing up and down the bay. My 6yr old landed the first Northern of the trip all by himself which he was obviously pretty proud of. Measured in about 15 or so inches.  Used the Banks Fry Bake pan to make some pizzas for the day which was a huge hit with everyone. Nothing else crazy for the day. 

Day tripped over to Thursday bay for fishing. The wind was still not great with pretty strong southern wind making fishing less than ideal but we were still able to land a couple nice small mouths as well as a couple northerns (24" and 23") while trolling back across the bay. Had nice fish dinner that this night. 

Decided to turn the trip into a loop instead of an out and back based on the restriction of camping on Horse Lake and not being confident that the kids would be able to help out enough to go against the current as well as most likely the wind to get back to lower/upper basswood then the following day back up the horse river all the way out to the EP. So the decision was made to go up through Friday bay and back down through the mile long portage and into Gun Lake to camp then over to Fourtown the next day and our the final day. So we decided to just take an off day and relax around camp, also it looked like more rain which proved to be a wise decision as we got yet another much smaller thunderstorm. 

We got up early and got the kids going with a light breakfast and a strong pot of coffee for the adults we were on the water by 7:45, only 15 min behind schedule, which for this trip was quite a success to say the least. We beat the wind in Friday so the paddle was uneventful other than my son finding a hitchhiking Crawfish in the boat. We hit the first portage pretty close to our scheduled time and powered through. Our boat was set on 1 trip portages but my buddy had resorted to 2 trippers at this point as there was not a lot of help from his boys. The next one to speak of was short but a very steep up and over. Then we arrived at the the long one 1 mile and I can only assume it was from the storm several nights earlier the portage had several trees down across it. What's better than portaging a mile? Having obstacles on it... The highlight was the one about 2/3rds way through that was about chest height so cant go under and cant go over with the canoe. After navigating the tree we finally arrived in Gun Lake. All the campsites minus one (which looked terrible) were occupied. It was still early in the day so we decided to keep going over to Fairy lake which had 1 of the 2 sites occupied. A short paddle across and another hop skip and a jump short portage into Boot lake we we found a fairly nice 3 star site facing the west. Great little swimming spot on the bottom of the rock. Nothing great for tent sites to speak of but we managed to set up 2. Someone had stayed and had some time on their hands as they had created a table out of woven sticks up by the kitchen area. 

Saw on a weather report that another storm was rolling in over night and into Friday so we decided to cut the trip a day short and head out. Had a large (lighten the load) breakfast, two pots of coffee and got packed up for the last haul through boot, over to Fourtown and through the dreaded Mudro triple portage. As expected for the final day the wind was a in our face across Boot, down Fourtown...the whole way. The final portages from Fourtown to Mudro were not as bad as I had expected honestly but that doesnt mean they were good either. Very rocky, every step is an ankle buster if you are not paying attention. Luckily it was not wet, with only minimal mud in a couple spots. The first is short and sweet, the second is one of the longest 1/3 of a mile I think I have ever walked. A lot of up, then down, then up again, and some more down....then more up, up and some more up, then some down and finally a false end. Again it's not the worst portage in the world but if you are not paying attention it can be a bad day on your feet or ankles so take it easy and watch your step. We managed to make it through all three in pretty decent time. We waited for the rest of our group to catch up and finally got out at Mudro about 2 hrs behind schedule but about 5 minuets before it started to rain. Small wins. Over all though it was a great trip as any trip in the BWCA is. Just remain flexible and enjoy nature at its best. Already excited for the next trip and so is my son.