DAY ELEVEN, SABBATH, 7/25/2015, 7.4 paddling miles, 0.7 portaging miles, total miles 8.1, two portages, Lake Four, Lake Three, Lake Two, Lake One, EP#30 takeout, then a memorable drive.

We relaxed today, got up slow, swam a bit in the lake, and watched quite a number of paddlers coming and going in front of our tip of a peninsula campsite. A school of rabbits decided to start running through our campsite I suppose hoping we would chase them so they would have something to laugh about. Those crazy rabbits ran through our site multiple times during breakfast which was the craziest thing we had seen. We made good use of our canoe seat cushions from Spring Creek Outfitters as camp chairs which we used at other sites as well. A few thistles en route to the odiferous fiberglass throne met the demise of stick swords, but nothing seemed to get rid of the hawk sized mosquitoes that loved to inhabit the inside of the latrine. The ladies started spraying a bit of repellent inside the latrine just before parking their caboose which evidently seemed to make some difference. 

I had brought along a 10 watt solar charger with two USB ports (Mercury 10 from instapark) and it did a great job keeping cell phones charged up for pictures and GPS usage. I was using the app Backcountrynavigator Pro with offline maps downloaded along with an overlay of campsites and portages. That was very useful for tracking mileage traveled and to sometimes help settle disputes between exactly where we were. It certainly is important to always know where you are on the map or it would be very easy in some locations to get mixed up and relying on electronics is not something I recommend.

I found in the stern that I did not like a 14 degree bent shaft and much preferred the straight if having to make a lot of turns. The 7 degree I also liked pretty well in the stern and the ladies in the bow did well with the 14 degree paddles.

My wife often carried one canoe and I carried the other one although each adult at some point carried a canoe. My father-in-law's back complained about twisting so generally he stuck to packs. The kids packs weighed about 25 pounds give or take and they very well. I would normally carry a light pack of perhaps 50 pounds along with the canoe then do a separate trip for the two barrel food pack. The fewer loose items to carry by hand the better. The Astral paddling PFDs made in Asheville NC worked well for my wife and I.

Well eventually we got to the last portage and so took a group shot while eating a short snack. Then we paddled out to EP#30, and two people took the vehicle we left there and picked up the other vehicle over on Moose. Loaded up and then to Subway in Ely for some fresh veggie subs. We thought we would grab a hotel in Ely but we called all over the place and nothing seemed available. So we drove on and called other places along the trip south and no place had vacancies. This became the night that never ended. We ended up stopping at some roadside park and took a short nap in the cars then kept driving. We never did find a hotel that night. We kept driving the next day, stopped at Lake Michigan where the water was freezing, toured Jelly Belly, and found a hotel I believe in Indiana someplace where everyone crashed. I had never seen motels booked up so solid in all my life as I had north of Chicago.

This trip was certainly a wonderful memory and we are looking forward to another trip but not another drive home like we had the first trip. It was great having lots of help and information from the good folks at bwca.com.