Saturday, September 06, 2008 We rise at 5:30AM and pack. We’re on the water paddling before 7AM. The Moose River seems a bit higher than it was on our way in. As we paddle through the “wetlands” area just out of Agnes, we see movement in the water ahead of us. Jamie thinks it looks like snakes in the water, but as we get a bit closer, a head pops up and we see that it’s a group of 5 otters. They seem disturbed that we have interrupted their breakfast. They paddle to the side, all the while watching our every movement. Periodically their heads come full out of the water and crane back and forth watching us. We watch for about 5 minutes and Jamie takes a short video on her digital camera. They are grumbling as we slowly paddle past them. We find out later that Jamie’s 2 minute video has become a 15 second video because her memory card filled up shortly after she started recording. We paddle on and about 15 minutes later see another group of 4 otters. They swim alongside us (from a safe distance) for about 100 yards or so, checking to make sure we leave I guess. When we reach Nina Moose Lake, Jamie notices something swimming along the far NW shore. It’s a large animal and both of us are thinking “moose”. As we head towards the Moose River inlet, it appears that we are heading on a collision course with this animal. We have almost the full length of the lake to paddle. As we get closer, it becomes apparent that it is too small to be a moose. We finally see that is a deer and that we are indeed headed toward the same location. Just before we exit the lake into the Moose River, he exits the water up on to shore. We get a pretty good look and snap a few decent photos. Our quest to see a moose is unfulfilled, but in no way dampens our trip. In fact, it will be a reason to return next year. The rest of our exit was uneventful, and the heavy rain waited until about 3 minutes after we started driving away from the entry point. Cold beer and showers were wonderful, as was lunch. We drove straight through to the Chicago area, arriving home just before 1AM.  This was my first trip on a river in the BWCA and it was really a great route. It was a very nice mix of rivers, lakes, reasonable portages, good fishing and great scenery/wildlife. We saw many bald eagles, otters, loons, deer and various ducks. It is our second trip together and we have become good traveling companions. I have noticed that our paddling is more efficient and our work in camp is better coordinated. The really exciting thing is that our conversations were not about if we would return, but rather when we would return!