Thursday, July 19: Because we traveled further yesterday then we expected, today will be a rather short paddle. But we also have the long portage back into North Cone. Fortunately, what had been the heaviest packs to carry the first time, the food, now have become the lightest. Also, this is more of a downhill hike, and it goes much better than the first time. Going through the Cone Lakes, we found some nice sites open, but we passed on them hoping to find one of the real nice sites we had seen in Cone Bay on Brule our first day in. We found a pretty good sized site, that someone on this board had rated 5 stars, open, and quickly claimed it. Don't get me wrong, it was a very good site, but I still like the one on Winchell and definitely the one on Gaskin better. we set up camp for what would be our last night in the B-dub. Being to cool to go swimming, we spent most of the afternoon kicking back. One item left undone though. Tom still had not caught his fish worth showing anyone. You have to know my brother Tom. At our cabin in northern Wisconsin, he always catches the biggest and most fish. He has a great knack for smallies, but in three trips to the B-dub, he has caught one small walleye, one not real small lake trout, and the rest have ben mostly bait fish sized. That night, the world became a much better place to live in, or at least our drive home, when Tom finally landed a smallie that was worthy (barely) to be photoed. You can see the expression of joy in his son Josh's face, proud of his father and the lunker he somehow managed to fit in the knoo without capsizing. That evening, we would be given one more chance to see a spectacular evening sky before our departure tomorrow.