Now for what was absolutely the hardest day of paddling for my companions and certainly one of the most challenging ones for myself. This is also where my incorrect marking of Snowbank Lodge's location comes home to roost as well :(. No pictures this day did justice to the whitecap fun

In the morning we all take off from camp around 9:30. The winds never reduced over night and increased as we waited in the morning. I figured we had 6.5mi of paddling to do, so let's get to it.

We headed south on Disappointment, fighting through the whitecaps. Around halfway down as we were about to turn west towards the final portage or two (the choice was a single 140 portage to Snowbank or going to Parent and then to Snowbank) my companions got stuck near an island, flipped their canoe and in the course of that lost one of our walkies, which means we were now out of contact in potentially (no clue what the day would bring) dangerous weather. I was able to backtrack to them and helped get them situated, but in that I was now stuck in a current and fought for a while to get back across Disappointment towards the next portage.

At the next portage we had a choice of a single 140rd or two smaller portages through Parent, but totaling more. We decided on Parent because that put us closer in line with where I marked our exit point at and potentially less direct canoeing on Snowbank. As we came to Parent the whitecaps continued and, we feel, got stronger, but at this point the math said to continue, so we did.

We reached Snowbank and were a bit pushed back by the whitecaps and wind. At this point we called our Outfitter and a few other contacts but it seemed that nobody had water taxi capabilities on the lake, which seemed really odd. We also called Wilderness Bay Lodge, which apparently is just a resort located just north of the portage, and they indicated we could come hang out while we waited for the wind to die down. As places go it was pretty but I did not feel welcome. This place was the epitome of "Minnesota nice" where they'd say helpful things but when you actually asked for it they'd suddenly find that they had plans or were unable to help.

We asked a few folks if they knew of a taxi service or if they new the owner of the pontoon that was parked there. Everyone said "no" and walked by, trying to make as little conversation with us as possible. Eventually we consigned to just get to it and went back to our canoes and get on the water. We shot for Burnt Island directly ahead, but halfway there my friends got tossed by the waves. I approached to grab a floating backpack and about that time one of the residents of Wilderness came along to help tow them to the island. Once there we got ourselves situated and traversed around the south end of the island, which caused havoc with my friends' canoe. They didn't get tossed again but they had to backtrack a few times as the currents and winds got the best of them. A little while later as I approached the boat landing -- I was shooting for this because I was hoping they had a map posted as I had a feeling that I maybe had something wrong on my map -- the pontoon from Wilderness Bay went past me and docked and I saw that one of the folks that got out was one of the folks we asked for help at the lodge, cementing my thoughts. I reached the dock just in time to see them drive off.

At this time my companions reached the dock and were drained and angry. I figured I had another 15 minutes of paddling to the outfitter, since it was just north, so I told them to hold and I'd go on. I jumped back in the canoe and turned north. I didn't fully realize my mapping error until I reached the next boat launch, which was the actual EP, and looked at their posted map, did some mental math and thought about what our launching had looked like a few days prior. I was a bay or two around a point east from where I needed to be and I needed to get there before the owners left for the night so I could get my friend's car keys to come back and get them.

I felt stressed, happy and invigorated. This was my jam. Put me in a physically challenging situation after I've already been going for hours, in a canoe meant for two people, in 20-25 mph winds, with an unknown end-point (I knew it was at least a bay over, but I had no clue where) and put a hard time limit on it? Let's do this :).

I jumped back in the canoe and pushed. I knew my friends were tired and I had brought up pizza and beers for dinner and I did not want to disappoint. I fought through the white caps up around the point and found that the next bay did not house my outfitter and nor did the following much larger bay. I knew it had to be on this southwest side so I kept pushing. With the sun in my eyes I came around the next point and laughed at the strength of the wind and size of the waves. Looking across the lake I could see the sun reflecting off a metal roof, but I couldn't make out if that was our outfitter. I pushed south and west and gambled. Eventually I noticed a red colored building in the trees and looked east to see one of the cabins a companion had mentioned on the day we left. I had found our outfitter :). I docked, tossed everything on the walkway and ran up to the main building to find our proprietor still around. It was 7:30 at this point, so I was lucky. It had taken me an additional hour to hour and a half from the EP to paddle what amounted to an additional 2.5 - 3 miles. I guzzled a bottle of water and he gave me the car keys and jumped on his ATV to show me the way and pick up the canoe that they had there.

We took off and found my friends. We then took off to Ely and brought back some great food from The Boat House.