Little Vermillion to Crane We headed out at 7:30. Beautiful day, beautiful conditions, and we were soon back to the land of cabins and powerboats. It really hit home as we paddled towards a barge with an oil tanker truck on it coming from Crane. Made it to Nelson’s Resort a couple hours head of our ride at 10:00, so we had a time to enjoy a huge breakfast with plenty of coffee.

Along the way, we had a Delorme InReach satellite texting device. We could check in with the kids and wives at home, invite them to track our progress, and of course arraign for pick-up. Staying in touch with family was important to us as we both have kids at home who were too young to tackle this trip. Perhaps they can carry us along in a few years down the road! So, in sum, this was not my typical BWCA trip. It was about distance traveled and efficiency. I would say it was 50% BWCA beauty, and 50% physical challenge. We had planned on up to 14 days, and clearly with bad weather, we could have been closer to that. But, we lucked out and were motivated enough to want to get home to make it through about 220 miles by 10:00 am on the 8th day. It was a great experience seeing it all east to west. Amazing views, and interesting to see the flora, and topography change along the way.