The day began in the same way that many great BWCA trips start, with breakfast at Britton's! After that we grabbed a coffee and started to get going. After dropping our car at the exit on Wood we were off on Fall. The fall colors were coming in and it was looking beautiful. We made it on to Newton and then it wasn't long until we were getting rained on. Rain ended up being very off and on again throughout the whole day. The portage to Basswood (Pipestone Bay) was a nice one as it offered a great elevated view of Pipestone Falls from the portage. Katie and I, although fairly wet, were having fun and appreciating how far we could see down Basswood (so long!). I learned this trip that Katie has a great fear of headwinds while paddling apparently due to her teaching young campers how to canoe on a very windy day at camp. We did our best to muscle through the wind and to stick to the sides as best we could. After a quick stop near Washington Island to do some fishing, we were off to find our site for the day. The rain was beating us down, so we decided to stop a little early for the day. We landed at site #1600. Besides the poison ivy on the beach and walk up it was a decent site. We quickly set our tent up and started to configure our tarp so we could have a dry sitting spot. After venturing out to find wood I was happy to find and cut the perfect piece of wood to hold our tarp up in the middle and prevent pooling water. After camp was set up, we laid down to warm up for a bit and had a nice chat sheltered from the rain. We got up and had steaks and mash for dinner (love the day 1 dinners!). We chatted some more after dinner and went for a pretty brief after dinner paddle until a few raindrops threatened to get our nice dry clothes wet. After scurrying back to camp, we took a moment before bed to admire the stars in the dark sky where Katie, in classic fashion, pointed out the big dipper to me. We then meandered back to the tent and retired for the day.

After a slower start to the morning, we had some pancakes and bacon for breakfast. We talked over our plan to get to Wood today and do some fishing and knew that we would have to push and get a little lucky to find an open campsite on Wood as there are only 5 (and 2 entry permits on wood each day). After breakfast we packed up and set out for the day. Katie had begun to notice a shoulder pain the day previous that continued into today due to the repetitive motion of paddling. This meant that we were taking it a little easier today than we would normally on the paddling. Not quite the same case for the portaging as it turned out. We overpacked some for this trip and having just 2 of us meant that we had 4 packs and 1 canoe to portage. And because we are not weenies, we had one person double pack and the other double pack plus portage the canoe for nearly every portage we had. Katie started out tripled up but by the end of the day I had done most of the portaging with the canoe and 2 packs. Quite the workout! We portaged over to Back and started to make our way south towards Good Lake. On this trip, we were very focused on wildlife and stopped to ID and take in many birds and mammals that we saw. In our search for cool wildlife, we found some common mergansers! There were about 6 females on a rock under a tree. After taking a few pictures, we headed down to Hoist Bay. While on Hoist we realized we had been told about a cool hoist engine that was submerged in the lake somewhere. In retrospect, I wish we would have skipped over this because in looking for it we got lost on the lake and it took us a good while to figure out where it actually was. By the time we found it we were about done with Hoist and wanted to leave. We were originally planning on going down Good Creek to get to Good Lake but we found that we had to traverse a lot of reeds, lily pads, and submerged mud piles to get through it. Figuring that it might take us more time to get through the creek than to portage we opted to do the 130 rod portage instead. After our little goose chase for the submerged engine on Hoist we realized that it was getting late and started to worry about securing a spot on Wind. We knew that if we didn't find a spot that we were either going to have to backtrack 3 lakes or find a non-campsite to comp at. Right as this worry started to bubble up we came across a nice couple on the portage to Hula who told us that they had just entered on Wood at 1:30 (sheesh!) and site #1152 was still open. This gave us some hope and got us excited as this was my #1 spot on Wood! We hurried through the rest of the portage onto Hula. Before leaving for this trip, I wondered why there were no campsites on Hula and I figured that out when we got there. Our portage entrance and exit on Hula was very muddy with leeches and was not very fun to walk in with Chacos. The lake seemed like it was 2 feet in depth the whole time but when we tried to touch the ground with our paddles we realized that it was made up of at least 3 feet of soft muck (yuck!). We deemed that this was the worst lake possible to flip your canoe in. Other than that, our pathway to the Wood Lake portage was a scenic one through some tall reeds. Right before we got there we saw about 50 birds (some kind of waterfowl) fly out of the reeds. A very cool site! After the portage over to Wood we were hurrying out of anticipation to see if we could get a site. When we found #1152 open we were relieved to say the least. The last site open on Wood and, somehow, the nicest one? On a peninsula with room for about 6 tents and scenic walkway leading to a little personal fishing spot in the back? It beats me why this site was left open but whatever the case, we were happy to have it. We quickly set up the site and got right back in the canoe and paddled around while I fished. I had no luck with the fish but it was a nice pre-dinner paddle. There was a group of 5 fishing near our site and we were happy to see them erupt in joy as one of them pulled in a fish. We even celebrated with them! We then headed back to cook up some pasta with pesto and bacon with fried bread on the side. A very good meal! I got some more fishing in before the night was over in the bay on the back side of our site. Got a few bites on the frog but wasn't able to pull anything in. After that we both decided to hit the hay.

After some talk we decided to have some dry snacks in place of a real breakfast for our last day. This left some time for fishing in the morning! I had to go back to the bay with my frog to see if I could get some action and I did! A little too much action in fact because my frog got bit off! I was a little glum because of it as I hadn't caught a fish yet and was oh so close to reeling him in. I decided to pack it up and get going for the day. We did look for the fish or the frog in the bay before we left but could not find it :-(. We set out for the 220 rod portage on Wood with the idea to fish along the way. We first stopped at a little island on the middle west side Wood so I could fish off the point. I caught no fish but we did get to see a fisher! He was very cool to see. We was collecting leaves and running them around his little island. He would often stop and stare at us to make sure we were keeping our distance and then continue scurrying around doing his little chores. After that island I fished the bays on the western side of the lake to see if I could get some action. I made sure to attach a leader to my line this time in fear of losing another lure. I had a few bites but nothing on the line. I asked Katie what she thinks I should do differently, and she said I should reel in faster. I don't believe she answered this out of genuine fishing knowledge, but it made a lot of sense. I started to do just that and all of a sudden I had a fish on the line! A small northern pike was all it was, but I was happy. We took a few pictures and then I let it go. We meandered for a while longer while I fished and she paddled until we realized that if we didn't return our gear by noon we were going to be charged for another half day! It was about 10:00 am and we had a 220 rod portage ahead of us that we were fearing we would have to double back on to complete so we really had to get going! We got to the portage at about 10:15 and both decided that I would triple up and she would double up for as long as we could and then I would drop the canoe which we would come back for. I ended making it about 115 rods I would guess (saving us about .7 miles!!) before I dropped the canoe and continued on. We were really hurrying when we turned back from the car to grab the canoe. We ended up getting everything to the car by 11:20 which we were both stoked about. We were home free! We got back to the outfitter, took our showers, got a coffee and some brunch, meandered around some stores, and then hit the road back to the cities. For context, this was my second trip in 10 days so I was pretty beat and ready to enter back into regular life in the cities. I had a great time though with my future wife.