Wednesday, June 19, 2013 Packing up the last morning of a trip you anticipated for a year is always bittersweet. The shower that awaits especially when you couldnt swim much is very appealing, but all the rest is a downer. Andrew and I packed everything up, tidied up the site and paddled away on a sunny cloudless morning. I once again navigated us by the entrance to the Bottle river, until a quick check of the GPS lead to a short backtrack. The bottle portage was muddy as usual, but we got to the Lac Lacroix end without incident. We were 45 minutes early for our tow, had a good chat with some guys that spent a week on the american side of Iron lake. Our tow was about 40 minutes late-late enough that I started plotting a course with my GPS back to Zups. We heard the hum of the motor just as I told Andrew we should probably start paddling toward Zups if we wanted to make it back before dark. We got back to Zups, had as usual the most satisfying shower of the year and made it back to our car at Crane lake by 3 pm. 8 hours later we were back home in Marquette. So next year, we plan to go to Poohbah. I will restart my exercise program so I am less of a slug. My packing will be more stringent. I had Andrew do all the unpacking this year. He uncovered the results of throwing in last minute items. He lined up the compasses I brought (9), the headlamps (5), extra batteries (12), flashlights (4). He made a pile of what we didnt use (my anchor, 90% of our fishing tackle, 3 survival knives, an axe, 12 fire cubes)a marker buoy; what didnt work (my drift sock) what we didnt really need (our depth finder). I told him the information was useful and it will help me refine my packing next year-I will make sure "all" the extra stuff goes in his packs, and maybe I will only take 6 extra batteries. for next year. .