Our tow pickup time was 10:30am, and we made it on the water around 8:45 with only a mile to paddle to the 7 rod portage. Out came the rods, and we enjoyed some really great fishing on the way out, with several nice smallmouth biting to give us a farewell to the BWCA. James only needed a pike to complete a Grand Slam but none were cooperative, and we were promptly picked up by the boat and headed towards home. We couldn’t help but marvel at the weather, the relative lack of bugs, and the amazing time we had. Aside from a totally avoidable bit of campsite anxiety on Day 2 I don’t think our luck could have been better.

A few notes on gear that we took out of this trip:

The 4 liter Platypus gravity filter did absolute monstrous amounts of work for us. Just make sure to backflush as directed - we got a little lazy early on in the trip and it definitely slowed down until we gave it a thorough backflush.

Permethrin and Thermacells were allstars this trip. Three of us never took out our head nets, even on the portages so the bugs weren’t bad, but we saw two ticks the whole trip and even when the bugs started to head towards camp, shortly after the Thermacells were lit up they disappeared.

We were given a Minnesota II and a Basswood 17 canoe, and traded canoes and partners throughout the trip. I’m glad Williams and Hall set us up like this as we got to experience a couple very different styles. The Basswood 17 was definitely slower, but far more comfortable. The Minnesota II was quick and tracked very well, but was hard on the knees due to the narrower profile.

For the most part, we were really happy with our gear. I never brought out the drift sock or the mosquito tent I had packed, though if we had stayed on Sema I would have probably used the drift sock, and if the bugs had been out in force and overpowered the Thermacell I’m sure we would have used the tent. I would probably reconfigure my clothes and bring a better variety of food, but overall super happy with this loadout, especially as a first-timer.

It was a bucket list trip, and one that I think would be hard to replicate the luck we had with fishing, bugs, and weather. Amazing.