Day 4 was another beautiful day - not a cloud in the sky. We both awoke and finished packing our inside the tent stuff. We got the stove going and boiled some water to cook oatmeal out of the Alpine package. 10 minutes later our oatmeal was ready and just as tasty as the day before. I'm a little surprised how hot it still was after it sat there for a good 10 minutes in the zipped bag. I'm convinced that this freeze-dried stuff is a great way to go. The time you save cooking and cleaning can be used doing other things, and the days are so packed that saving a little time just makes lots of sense to me. We packed up the rest of our gear and then packed the canoe for our paddle out. The lake was still and we paddled at an easy pace with our south bearing. Easily finding our way back to the EP, we landed and George went to get his truck while I pulled gear out of the canoe. We then packed up the truck and headed out. We decided to go home and get George's trolling motor since most of our fishing would be out of the BWCA in our next undisclosed lake. Got back to George's home and re-packed the back end of the truck for a day trip including the fishing gear, some trail mix, med kit, water bottles, rain gear, and of course the trolling motor and fish locator. We got to Gorge's undisclosed lake and fished for about 5 hours. George took me to his 3 or 4 "A" fishing spots, as well as some "B"s. We did some trolling. We caught quite a few nice walleye. Late in the day we got to the part of the lake where the BWCA kicks in, so we found a spot to ditch the trolling motor for awhile. George took me to one of his "A" spots and my first cast resulted in an immediate hit. As I fought the fish, it stayed down, so we thought it was a walleye. The tug on the line was really nice, and we soon found out why. George netted my 20" walleye as we both got a little crazy with excitement. We turned back towards our put-in and paddled back with an air of satisfaction. We had accomplished just about everything we were hoping to this year, and it actually happened so quickly that we had a couple days to spare on our original plan of 6 days out and back.
We packed up the truck and headed back to George's home. Saw another fox as we were driving. When we got back, I was amazed at how Lesley and George just both had this system of getting things ready for cleaning fish in the kitchen sink and cleaning up. Lesley had already planned a fish fry. Lesley had everything ready for George's return - it's like she just knows he's bringing fish home. If you ever see their fish freezer you'll understand better. I emptied the truck and packed most of my gear back in my car for the trip home. But I wasn't going home for a few days, and the fun was just beginning!