Friday, July 10, 2009 In the morning we finished what we had left of pancake mix and oatmeal. We broke camp cleaned up and were off and on the water by 9-ish. Once again Basswood had strong winds heading from the east as we paddled head on into them, once we were into the narrows the winds calmed down but we could definitely feel the current going the opposite way. Unfortunately once we hit Pipestone bay again the wind had really picked up and the waves were getting rough. We kept pushing on being we were running low on food stuffs and everything was getting wet with all the water splashing over the sides of the canoe.

As we continued to battle the wind and the waves we kept noticing something in the water off the island to the northeast of New York Island. From the distance and the waves we could not determine if it was a log, rocks or something else. It took about 20 minutes or so before we were able to get close enough for me to pick out a floating white Styrofoam cooler. We reached them about the time they were pulling their boat ashore. It seems a couple guys going out fishing for the weekend had hit some bad waves coming around the island and had flipped. We tossed our bags that weren’t strapped into the canoe out and had Sarah get out while we retrieved what we could of theirs from the lake, while they finished dragging the rest of their gear from the water. We managed to rescue most of their beer and some other food that had been in the cooler. They gave us each a beer and gave us a pack of smokes in return for gathering their gear; it may have been a light beer in a plastic bottle but man that was one tasty brew.

Once we were back on the water the wind refused to let up but we kept pushing if either my cousin or I stopped paddling even for a moment we would start moving backwards. Finally we saw our Portage at the south end of Pipestone and we took a well deserved rest before we began. We headed off and cruised through Newton lake, being there was just a light breeze and no waves. Roughed it through our last portage and got a third or fourth wind once we saw the dock at our entry point. We loaded up the car and headed back to Ely. We stopped at my cousin's aunt's house and took showers. We walked over to the Ely steakhouse to grab some dinner, burgers and their walleye fingers for appetizers, along with their Surf and turf bloody mary - I've never seen quite so much food in a drink. After dinner we walked down to the Boathouse pub to enjoy a couple of pints before we walked back to his Aunt’s house. In the morning we would drop off the canoe at his dad’s friend’s house and head back to the Minneapolis.