Sunday, July 20, 2014 Managed to sleep in until 7:00, as I had a lazy morning planned with just two portages left in my trip and not a lot of paddling. Goofed around camp, did some more fishing but no catching, and packed my gear one last time. I loaded up the Wenonah Prism (32 pounds!) and set out for a leisurely finish to my trip. The 90 rod portage in to Smoke was as easy as I remembered it being from previous trips, and posed no trouble at all. I was hoping to catch a Smallie or two in Smoke, but couldn't muster a strike on a plastic twisty tail or a silver rattle trap. As I embarked on the portage in to Sawbill, my last of the trip, I met a young girl on the trail, she was maybe nine. Looked like she was carrying about all she could handle! As I got to the other side of the portage I discovered the rest of her party including at least two other kids. Love to see them out there! One of the members of the party is a regular on this site, Wallorthern, we exchanged compliments and went our separate ways. As I got in to Sawbill, I realized that I may not have such an easy go of it after all. The wind was blowing strong, probably 20-plus, straight out of the South and right in to my face. I paddled hard from the portage to the first campsite inside the BWCA at the southern part of the lake and took a lunch break. That's a great campsite too, and I've always just paddled right past it since it's right near the landing. Maybe one of these years I'll camp there either on my way in or out. I set out again for the last little stretch of the trip, and needed to paddle with all my strength just to keep the bow from getting pulled around by the wind. There were no elegent J-strokes at this point, just brute side to side digging! Fun stuff. Of course, as I paddled up to the landing at Sawbill there were other parties just getting ready to embark on their trips. The end of a trip is always sad and satisfying at the same time. Many of you know exactly what I speak of.  I packed up my gear, and had a very nice conversation with Bill at Sawbill Canoe Outfitters. What a great, and friendly, source of information he is. There's talk of my brother and I taking a trip next Summer, and I really look forward to that. We've never tripped together. But I'll tell you what: I could see myself taking a solo trip every year for the rest of my life. I'm hooked!

  Driving down the Sawbill Trail towards Tofte I had the pleasure of watching a wolf walk down the gravel road in front of me. I followed slowly for a while, then after probably a quarter mile she slipped in to the ditch and woods. It was still early in the day, 2:00, so I decided to re-enter the BWCA and climb Eagle Mountain, Minnesota's highest point. The last time I did that was eight years ago, and my son and I brought our one-year-old Golden Retriever with us. After completing that seven mile round trip the other day I decided that if I was going to try to bring our now nine-year-old retriever up that rugged hill I'd likely be carrying him back!