We awoke to another day of drizzle and wind. More wind than drizzle, actually. And we ate breakfast in silence for the most part. This trip, more accurately, the past few days, had really beat us down. It was too wet and too cold. It was becoming the trip from hell. We had been out for seven of our planned nine days and it had rained for the majority of each day. Perhaps 12 hours of our trip (while we were awake) was dry and sunny.

We looked over the map during breakfast and came to the conclusion that we no longer wished to sleep in wet tents on wet ground with damp sleeping bags. We were going to try to get out of the BWCA, back into a dry car (with dry clothing) and back to Grand Marais as soon as we could manage it. We packed up our gear, loaded up the boats and hit the water.

We completed the portage into Alpine Lake right away only to be greeted with a face full of wind… again. Not daring to stop however we pushed on as strong as we could. Because of the wind we had to keep behind as many of the islands on Alpine Lake as we could. Any time spent in the wind would keep our forward progress at half it normally was. We managed however and made it to the 100-rod portage into Seagull Lake a little before 11 in the morning, or so.

We hit the water on Seagull Lake and continued our island hoping, wind avoidance technique up the western shore. About halfway up the lake the skies suddenly parted, all the clouds seemed to dissipate and the sun finally came out again. Shit. We were able to strip off the fleece and enjoy the sun but it hampered our destination because none of us really wanted to leave the BW yet.

We made our way to the beach site that we stumbled upon during our 2007 trip in the hopes that it would be empty. Every other site we passed was taken but we had happened on that site before and with a bit of luck we would find it open. As we approached it was indeed open and our hopes rose again. One more night in the BW would be great (even though our out day was Sunday) and, if it stayed sunny, we would have a chance to dry out the tents and a lot of our other gear.

We pulled into the site only to discover at the last minute that there was indeed a tent set up in the trees. It was such a dark green and black that we completely missed that it was there. We left it as it was and paddled around the corner and parked the boats next to a rocky cliff-like area to decide what to do next. We made jokes, ate GORP and all of our left over beef jerky (five bags worth) and finally came to the conclusion that we wanted to be done with this trip for the year.

We struck out for Seagull Outfitters once again. The paddling was slow. Not because of the wind or waves, but because we knew that we would be off the water in less than two hours and we were trying to spend as much time on the water as we could. None of us were really ready to be done. The weather had forced our hand a bit. We could have stuck it out but I think we were sick of being wet and cold.

We paddled up to the Seagull Outfitters docks around1pm or so and unloaded our gear. This was our second time coming in this way and the view of seeing the docks was a blessing. A hot shower was waiting for us. Real food and real coffee was waiting for us. Dry, non camp style clothing was waiting for us. I think we paddled harder than any other part of the trip during that last mile; that last push.

With the car loaded up, the canoes hitched to the back and with us showered up, we wished Debbie (who told us that it was even crappier at the outfitters all week) goodbye and we made our way back to Grand Marais. Clouds rolled in again as we left Seagull and it once again began to rain slightly. Happy to be in a vehicle with heat we turned it up as we made our drive back.

As we crossed over the hill into Grand Marais the clouds finally let go of their hold and took off, permanently. We were still not done with camping and, seeing as the weather was perfect (cloudless and warm), we pulled into the campground in Grand Marais, got a site, popped up the tents, hung close lines, and hit the bars.

We ate at My Sister’s Place this time around (a departure from Sven & Ole’s) where we enjoyed burgers and beer before we started bar hopping. We did not spend much time out on the town because we were bushed so after just a few hours we made our way back to the campground and hit the sleeping bags.