Friday, May 17, 2024 We had already made the decision that we’d return to Polly on Friday to make for an easier exit on Saturday, so after waking up around 8am, we started packing up camp. We all had Clif Bars, Coffee or Hot Cocoa and some water with Mio Squeeze Caffeine for an easy breakfast. It took a bit to pack up, but we hit the water around 10am. It was a nice, sunny day again and we enjoyed the reprieve from the rain. The portages were handled similarly to the way in and we made it to Polly around noon. At that point, we saw several people on the last portage into Polly as well as a handful of people on Polly. It was Friday and it was much busier than Wednesday.
Sean and I had always wanted to check out site 1073, and it was finally open, so we stopped off and looked. It was a good site but facing the wrong direction to get wind through. The bugs were already getting bad, so we decided to continue south and see if we could find a better site for the bug situation. The sites we were looking at on the west shore were taken, but surprisingly, the island site 2013 was open. Sean, Bianca and I stayed there on Bianca’s first trip in and enjoyed the site, so we decided to take that one. The breeze was blowing through fairly aggressively, but it definitely helped with the bugs.
We had some salami, cheese and trail mix as a nice pick me up before starting on camp chores. We again got camp set up, this site has an amazing tent pad area. Sean went in search of firewood, but being an island, he didn’t have much luck. He found a few small sections of wood and got that processed so we could get a fire started eventually. Amanda scared a grouse out of its nest of eggs while walking to the bathroom, so we continually joked with Bianca about catching a grouse for dinner. Obviously, we did not catch grouse for dinner. Brock helped get the bear tree ropes set up, this site also has an amazing bear tree. Once everything was set up, we had another delicious, freeze-dried lunch and then Sean and I paddled to the shore to our south in hopes of finding some firewood.
Amanda, Brock and Bianca stayed back and worked on getting a fire going with what little wood we had collected. Sean and I ended up finding a decent amount of firewood, so we loaded it up in the canoe and returned to camp. Amanda had made a neat oven out of rocks on the fire grate so we could cook potatoes in it and had gotten a fire started. The guys got started processing the wood while Amanda manned the fire and I put the potatoes in the “oven.” We ended up with plenty of firewood to get good coals under the oven and keep a nice fire going off to the side. While the potatoes cooked, Bianca decided she wanted to practice with the flint and steel. After about 45 minutes of solid work, she got a nice little fire going using birch bark and the flint and steel. Sean and I were incredibly impressed with her determination, as that is not always a strong skill she exhibits at home. She was proud of herself as well and it was neat to see her accomplish that. Dinner was freeze-dried meals over potatoes and we were all very satisfied. The potatoes were amazing in the makeshift oven that Amanda made and we’re definitely going to do that in the future. It was genius! Sean and I did the dishes, and then roasted some marshmallows over the fire. By this point, the sun was going down and the wind whipping through camp was starting to make us cold. We all huddled around the campfire and Amanda, Bianca and I started working on new friendship bracelets until it got too dark. Bianca went to bed around 9:30. The rest of us stayed up and watched thunderstorms roll in to the south of us. They all seemed to go around us to the southwest, and watching the lightning across the sky is always impressive. It does put a little but of a lump in my throat as I don’t love camping in thunderstorms, but still so powerful to see nature in full force. Eventually, we all went to bed, hoping to get some solid sleep for the paddle out the next day.