Last morning comes fast enough. I slept in until 6 am today. Latest I’ve gotten up all week. I get up and go down to the water after making coffee. The wind is still. UNBELIEVABLE!!! The only time all week there is no air movement at all. The lake is pure glass. Absolutely stunning. But it only lasts a short while, because as soon as we get breakfast and make plans to fish, the wind picks up. At least I got the camera and took lots of pictures so we could remember there really was a short period of time with no wind in the BW that week.

We take our time around camp as we do not need to make the takeout on Seagull until after 11 am. We leave about 10 am and have some chop to deal with until we make it to more protected waters. The best is saved for last on the open water to the landing. The northern end of Seagull has little fire damage. There are relatively few campsites and we have seen no one since the first camp coming from Alpine yesterday. Once we hit the motorized waters, we start seeing canoes, kayaks and motorboats. Back to civilization. The last stretch of open water has a stiff breeze from the southeast and we have to modify our course to keep from waves coming over the side. We make landfall and get unloaded. Krista goes to the payphone to let Tuscarora Outfitters know we are ready for our pickup. I’m hoping Andy sends lilcowdoc as we have conversed online about the BW. Sure enough, Lindsay shows up in a Suburban to take us back to our car and a hot shower. Andy, I am sorry about the hot water. It wasn’t me. It was Krista. She goes to the shower while I unload and reload the compact car for our return home. It takes me, I know a half hour. Then I go get my shower and worry Krista will think the car is locked and I have the keys. Not to worry. When I get out of the shower room, Krista is only now emerging from her watery cave. Post-Trip Assessment What went well? What went poorly? What would we do different next time? There was very little that went poorly other than the weather, and let me tell you, the weather, as bad as it was, was not the worst we’ve experienced. We were well-prepared for the weather we encountered. We were hit with rain unexpectedly in the middle of our portage to Mueller with all our rain gear still in our packs on the wrong end of the portage. The first day was longer than we anticipated with the headwind, and there was little time to relax fishing. Krista put up well with the ticks and we could have had bigger problems with the seagull on Ogish robbing us of some of our food. I will be more vigilant with keeping our food put away. I wish I had spent time teaching Krista map and compass. I wish I had spent more time talking with her about her and less about the trip in general. I feel we handled the 428 rod Missing Link-Tuscarora portage well for first timers in the BW. I could have prepared better physically for it though. I actually lost 5 pounds that week, in spite of all the good food we ate. I definitely took way too much fishing tackle. I’ll know better next time, even with more time for fishing. I would also take more pictures. Of food we ate, of each portage, of the night sky. And I would take more video clips. The clockwise course over five days of travel worked very well for us in light of the wind speed and direction. In the future, I’d like to do a west to east course with a sail and never have to lift a paddle. ?