M loves Ely and she knew we had a good bit of a hike in front of us, so she woke up early and shook me awake to get going. We took the time for a proper breakfast, but still had camp broken and were on the trail again by 9. It was a substantially warmer day than the first day, with our thermometer showing it around 60 as we hit the trail.

The section of the trail from Whisky Jack to the beaver dam is substantially easier than the west side of Angleworm, but it's also a bit harder to follow the trail. We moved significantly faster than we had on Thursday, and we were staring at the beaver dam(s) just an hour after we started. M had never crossed a beaver dam before, but she eagerly went first, describing it on the other side as "the scariest but coolest thing I've done on a hike". The dam was in really good shape and neither of us got our feet too wet, but we were still both glad to have our trekking poles along.

Just south of the beaver dam M recognized the spot where we'd turned back the year before. Coming at it from the north on a warm, sunny day, it's really obvious where the trail is; but looking back from the south we could both see why we'd been baffled by this segment of trail, in the rain, on a 35 degree day the year before. 

Just down from that spot we encountered the trunks and poles that keep the trail above the swampy muck of the southeast side of Angleworm, and enjoyed balancing on the logs, knowing we were nearly done.

I'd recalled the route as being 14 miles so had prepared M for four miles of trail before reaching the portage for the last two miles; but the GPS showed just 3.5 miles as we reached the clearing where the trails diverge to go up either side of the lake. We headed back onto the portage segment, balanced our way back across the log bridges, and made good time heading back up, reaching our car well before noon. Back in Ely, we had coffee and lunch at the Front Porch Café, went to Piragis to pick up some used gear, and spent some time looking around before K joined us for dinner at the Ely Steakhouse, a night at the Grand Ely Lodge, and a trip to the Bear Center to round out the weekend.