It had started raining pretty hard at about 11 PM the night before, and that continued for a few hours. Magically, the rain stopped by the time I got up at 6 AM. I packed up the equipment in my tent, had a quick and easy breakfast, took down the tarp, and did my final packing. I pushed off from the site at about 7:30. Clearly, I'm no speed demon when it comes to breaking camp. My knee was feeling 100% when I left the campsite.

A stupid navigational issue (really, just not paying attention to the map) had me miss the channel into Karl Lake, and I (instead) paddled to the western side of Long Island Lake. Not knowing exactly where I was, I paddled all over that western portion of the lake. Finally, using campsites as my reference, I made my way to the portage trail between Long Island Lake and Karl Lake (I had actually been at that landing about an hour before). I was thankful to finally find myself, but I was pissed at myself for wasting about two hours. Again, I didn't let myself wallow in that emotion, as I still had a lovely day of beautiful paddling ahead of me. It was definitely colder than it had been, and the wind was blowing in from the north. I later learned that there was a frost that night.

I arrived back at my original put-in on the Cross River at about 2:30 PM. I had seen two other two-person groups on Cross Bay Lake, but they were the only people I saw that day. I pulled all of my gear up to the parking lot and walked down to Tuscarora where Andy was available to come grab my stuff in his truck. After a shave and a shower, I departed Tuscarora a little before 4 PM and arrive home and into my bed at about 9:30 PM.

Upon further reflection, I was really happy with just about every aspect of my trip. The CCS tarp, Aeropress coffee maker, Helinox chair zero, and Platypus 4 liter water filter were all worthy purchases that really enhanced my comfort and enjoyment. I used all of the clothes that I brought (excluding the rain gear!), and my footwear choices (rubber rain boots for paddling, tennis shoes and flip-flops for camp) were perfect for me. I had ended up losing about 15 pounds in the eight weeks before the trip via diet and riding my bike over 100 miles a week, and I'm glad that I did. I think for next time, though, I'd really like to shed another 30-40 pounds and work some strength training into my routine -- both of which should help out with whatever is going on with my knee (which started hurting again about half way through the return voyage). I have really good motivation now, and I'm already looking forward to planning my next adventure.

Thanks to anyone still reading, and thanks to everyone who makes this site such a fun and useful source of information!