I got up around 5am to go fishing. I thought I would try the spot for walleye instead of bass. I caught a few smallies and a few walleye.

We were considering staying until Sunday morning. But we realized that we wouldn't get home until about 2am on Monday. So we decided to pack up around 1:30. Since everyone was expecting to leave on Sunday, it was quite an event. But, we packed up quickly and official pushed off at 3:30pm.

It was interesting to paddle out starting in the early afternoon. We did not see a single other group on any of the portages from Horse Lake, to Fourtown, and down to Mudro. We passed a group camping on the rapids from Fourtown to Mudro. They seemed genuinely confused and concerned that we were heading out so late.

We got to the Mudro launch at 8:30 pm. I would highly recommend this approach to others. We had the difficult Fourtown-Mudro portages all to ourselves. We did not have to contend with several groups going out and several more groups coming in. We could take up the entire launch area and relax. Also, the weather was cool and comfortable. When I consider the alternative – hitting the portages at 10am to noon – I am even happier with our decision.

We got to Ely around 10:00pm and had dinner at DQ. The girls were happy to be back in civilization but felt a tremendous sense of accomplishment. (One side note, another group in the DQ was getting ready to hit the BW the next morning. They were wearing their headlamps. Only in Ely Minnesota could someone eat in a DQ wearing a headlamp and not look out of the ordinary.)

It turned out the Jordan’s had room in their bunkhouse. So we slept there. Again, I can’t say enough good things about Jordan’s. Everything about this trip was done professionally and courteously. Even though we called them at 10pm on a Saturday night, they still took the time to prepare a bunkhouse for us and provided us lodging at the very last minute.