I wake up at 5 am. the rain is a steady drizzle. The kids want to try and make it out today. I've made it from Mudro to this point in nine hours before, and they're ready to go. So we pack the tents up wet. What weight we've lost from the food has been replaced by water. So off we go! Kayla's paddling like she did the first day out! We are averaging four miles an hour! In no time at all we are at Lower Basswood Falls. We spend a few minutes taking pictures and a short video then are off again. We head towards the Horse River and all i'm wondering his how low is the water. We have watched our shore line the last three days drop by two to three inches each day! We get to the first portage ok, cross it, and where we could paddle up the current last year was all rocks! We unload the canoe, no way to drag it through this spot, and get loaded and back on the way again. I start wondering how bad is today's traveling going to be! Then the next thought is how much fun is our next challenge going to be! We do the next portage ok, then the next rapids we get to there is a group of six portaging around what used to be rapids. We find a small spot and push are way up with our paddles and never get out of the boat. The next rapids we got to, it was similar from the last, but there was no way we could just push our way up. So Eric, jumps out and drags us up the rapids! We finally make it to Horse Lake, with all three of us paddling we are making awesome time! We do the portage to Tin Can Mike Lake. We see another deer and the campsite on our right as we pass through. Then we do the 160 rd portage into Sand Pit Lake. Were making awesome time, but up ahead we have the last portage into Mudro! It was hard last year coming in. This year going the out was very hard. Its only eighty rods, but you gain a good 100 plus feet of elevation. With the wet pack and tents etc. on my back it was the worst portage of the trip, but when we completed it, we had overcome everything we had to to make this one of the best trips I have ever had! We were back to our vehicle by 2:00 pm. Kayla had her cell phone back! Eric has a life time of memories, and me, well I'll start planning my next trip!

This trip was the first time I have brought freeze dried food. We had a few different brands of them. They were: Backpackers Pantry, Mountain House, and Natural High. We had beef stew from both Backpackers and mountain, the mountain brand was alot better than backpackers. We had chilli mac from mountain and that wasnt bad. All the meals were decent, but in my opinion I didnt care much for the backpackers pantry food or did any of the others in my group. We also had three cheese lasagna, it was ok but wish I had some rolaids to wash it down with. We had denver omlets they were ok. We also had scrambled eggs with baco bits. Three of us agree they were disgusting, but we kept them down. The cereal with blueberries and granola was great plus it stayed with you longer into the day. If I ever bring this type of food in again Id stick with cereal for breakfast. Well I hope you all enjoy what I have written. This is my first time trying to post a trip. Plus i'm not a writer at all. This is all off the top of my head two weeks after it happened and I have left a lot out as far as portage distances, campsite conditions and what they were like. Enjoy your travels! I've yet to have a bad trip!