We woke up today hoping to take advantage of a wind at our back by the time we made it to Seagull Lake. After packing our gear for the last time, we headed out, past a group of boy scouts that were camped on an island campsite on Alpine. After some arguing as to which way we would take to get to Seagull Lake, we decided on trying the 65 rod portage to Rog Lake. We were all happy that this was our last “big portage” of the trip. Knowing it was only listed as 65 rods on the map, I volunteered to carry the canoe. By the time I made it to Rog Lake we all had agreed that this measurement had to be incorrect, as it seemed more like 85-90 rods. We passed another canoeist on Rog Lake and were quickly to our last portage of the trip. Excited at getting to Seagull Lake, Slick and I decided it would be a good idea to leave our gear in the canoe and just carry it with two men down the 20 rods to Seagull. This was a mistake, as we quickly learned that even though it was only 20 rods, it had several sharp rocks that dropped off, as well as a lot of mud. We finally made it to our last lake of the trip, and it appeared that the wind was at our back as we had hoped. We checked the map, went from one vantage point to another and shortly we recognized that we were at 3 mile island. Seeing several motor boats go by we knew we were getting closer to the end of our adventure. After a couple of hours arguing with Jones and Craig about whether we should be paddling harder than we were, we made it to the dock at Seagull Outfitters. It was a bittersweet feeling. We were greeted by a gentleman at the dock, explaining to him that we were actually back a day earlier than we had scheduled. We unloaded our gear, borrowed some towels and made our way to the shower house. About a half hour later we were done showering and carefully fit our gear in the back of Craig’s Jeep. After a last stop in the outfitters, Craig purchased a knife, and Jones and I each purchased a map of our route (now I have 2 maps). After about a 60 mile drive down the Gunflint Trail we were finally back to civilization. We remembered seeing a pizza joint in Grand Marais a week earlier. We made our way downtown and found “Sven and Ole’s Pizza”. As we ordered our pizza and I got my ice water I had so badly been craving out in the wilderness we quickly ate what we had purchased. Slick had a craving for Goldfish crackers, so he drove up to the nearest grocery store. On our way out the door Slick grabbed a Sven and Ole’s bumper sticker, for which we later stuck to the back of Josh’s truck in Milwaukee. It was about a 10 hour drive back to Milwaukee where we stayed for the next couple of days and enjoyed some beer at the Lakefront Brewery Tour, as well as enjoyed some music and beer at Summerfest. It was a great time with great friends. We hope to make this trip an annual tradition.

Totals: 3 Lakes (Alpine, Rog, Seagull) - 85 rods - 574 miles to Milwaukee