Our last day everyone except Dalen was up at 5 and starting to pack and getting canoes loaded for our trip back to civilization. We had a quick breakfast of toast and coffee and we were moving a little before 7:00. The weather was once again beautiful and even a little hot as the portage to Ensign will get the blood moving a little bit. Once on Ensign we encountered for the first time during our trip a wind in our face but it wasn’t too bad and we made pretty good time crossing the lake. Our tow pickup was set up for the Birch portage so we left Ensign and made a leisurely paddle up to Birch and arrived at 10:15 for our 11:00 tow. After a half hour wait while we looked at some of our pictures and talked about the trip our tow showed up and we were on our way back to Ely. A quick shower and burgers at the Ely Steakhouse and we were on our way home. This trip was my 13th to the BW, by far the best yet.

We had clear skies and 65 degrees with no wind every day of the trip. The only time the wind blew over 10 mph it was pushing us in / out of Knife and the morning and evenings were dead calm. The bugs were basically nonexistent, no flies and very few mosquitoes in the evenings. We are by no means die hard anglers, but spent a fair amount of time fishing and we caught fish every time we went out. To top it off I got to trip with my closest family members which made for an awesome trip!