We woke up to — surprise — more wind. We took our time, since we didn't have far to go to reach our take-out spot on the Snake River. We figured it would take us maybe 2-3 hours to get there, so we ate a leisurely breakfast of pancakes and coffee/hot cocoa, then packed up. We secured everything but our fishing poles into the canoe and shoved off into the rolling waves of Bald Eagle Lake.

Once back into the relative shelter of the Little Isabelle River, we began fishing again. I gave my dad my favorite black buzz bait with a silver blade, and it immediately began paying dividends. He caught a tiny pike, then a little nicer one. He even caught a walleye (that one must have come on something else, I can't imagine catching one on a buzz bait).

Then, as his bait was clattering across the surface of the river, the water exploded as if someone had tossed an anchor into the water. He set the hook and held on as a huge northern pike began peeling off drag. Fortunately, he was using a 7-foot medium-heavy casting rod with heavy line, so he had plenty of backbone to fight the big fish.

The pike quickly tired, and he pulled it up alongside the canoe. There was no way this monster was fitting in the net, and there was no solid shoreline anywhere close, so my dad decided to grab the pike by the back of the head. He had just started lifting it out of the water when the fish thrashed, and in a blink of an eye, it took off, snapping his line.

He yelled out a curse, disappointed that we didn't have a chance to get the giant pike into the boat for a quick measurement and a photo, but there's no doubt in either of our minds that this big boy was easily 40 inches long and probably closer to 45 inches.

We made a few more casts, but after seeing that hulking pike swim away, our hearts just weren't in it, so we began paddling in earnest for our take-out spot.

The Snake River is hardly a river at all, more like a small stream. At first, it was easy enough to follow as it snaked through the tall grass. Eventually we came to a spot where the river almost ended and we had to guess which way to go. We guessed right and emerged back onto the river, but from here on our, it got narrower and narrower.

We made the first portage, which was marked incorrectly on our maps. Luckily, we had learned not to take the first portage on the right side of the river, but instead to go maybe 100 yards farther, to the actually portage on the left. This was the first of 3-4 short portages. They were easy to follow, but too long to do without emptying the canoe, so they took us quite a bit of time and work.

The final stretch of river reminded us more of a jungle river, it was so narrow, with branches reaching out over the river, brushing up against both shoulders as we eased our way through.

We finally came around a turn and saw a clearing and a man standing there. He was wearing brown, and my first thought was that he was a ranger, but it turned out he was our outfitter, who decided he'd rather chill out in the woods than sit around the store for the day.

We knew the carry out was a long one, so our outfitter volunteered to carry my pack and carry a few paddles as well. I took another pack and shouldered the canoe, while my dad shrugged on is pack and took our fishing rods and the rest of the loose gear.

The portage was long but mostly flat. I didn't get a chance to see much of it, since I had a canoe over my head.

We got back to the van, and our outfitter pulled out a cooler containing two candy bars and two lukewarm cans — a Diet Coke and an iced tea. Now I don't really like iced tea, but my dad had been going through some pretty serious withdrawals from a lack of Diet Coke, so I let him have it. The tea wasn't all that bad, either, and we both had our cans emptied before our outfitter had the canoe lashed to the top of the van.

The ride back was uneventful, the shower heavenly, and dinner at the Ely Steakhouse (the Bucky Burger chased by a beer) was to die for. We made the obligatory calls to home before grabbing some cold Cokes and heading for home. It was a week we'll both cherish forever.