Today was our lazy day. It was also an extremely hot day. It was reported in Ely that it was 88 degrees. We hung around camp in the morning and then decided to go on a cruise around the lake, check out campsites, and try to catch some fish. We trolled around for a while, caught a few bass and then checked out the Eastern most campsite on the lake. To me it seems like a hikers campsite. It is up on a huge cliff, has no good canoe landing, and the site is really far from the landing. We opted not to eat lunch there and just at by the canoe. One mistake I made was eating summer sausage I had opened two days earlier. I do not know if it was the heat or the sausage but I got extremely ill. We headed back to our site and I laid down to rest. I woke up extremely hot and sick and I contemplated going home that day just because of how I felt. However, the wind had picked up and I knew you don't mess with Snowbank and wind. With he way I was feeling and her not being a strong paddler I did not want to take the risk. About an hour later I felt better and was moving around again. I was glad I did not leave and was motivated to make this a fun last night in the woods. I gathered wood and we ate our last dinner in the woods. After dinner we went for a sunset cruise and reflected on our trip. We had a great talk by the fire and enjoyed each others company and instead headed back to our campsite to relax and start to pack things up.

The one thing that is funny is as how as the days progress, you start to cut down on things. At first, my wife liked to eat separate plates, bowls, silver ware etc. This last night, we ate directly out of the pot, less clean up!!

We woke up to a windy day on Disappointment. I decided to take the two Parent lake portages, as I had heard when there is strong wind it would be easier when crossing Snowbank. As we got on Parent, the wind picked up considerably and it was a tough paddle. The waves were a good two feet high. On Snowbank, the waves kept on a coming. It was a really difficult paddle. My wife was getting tired and I was working my butt off trying to keep us straight. There was no need for a workout this morning, I definitely got my fill on Snowbank. We finally reached the car and we were both wiped out. We headed back to outfitters, took the best shower God could ever create and got my ritual Ice Cream and hamburger from the DQ. Nothing better then Ice Cream after being in the woods!!

This was an outstanding trip. It was great to spend quality time with the woman I have been married to for 9 memorable years. So often we get so busy with work, kids, and other responsibilities that we forget were it all started. It was great to reconnect with her in the BWCA. She really enjoyed her trip and wants to take a trip with our kids up here next year. I think she's hooked!!! Also, Jordan's Canoe Outfitters was great and I highly recommend them.

Tuesday was move day and we were on the water by 7:45 AM headed north to Pan. We took our time and fished along the way, catching a few pike and bass near some of the rapids. The east end of Malberg and the Kawishiwi River is a stunningly beautiful area, accentuated more so by the blue skies and calm water of that particular day.

We portaged from Malberg into the Kawishiwi River, then into Kiviniva and Anit. The river areas between these smaller lakes were absolutely full of lily pads, which made the paddling slow but the flower viewing magnificent. After Anit, the 2 short portages are really just 1 big portage with a wet meadow in between them. Clearly it has been this way for a long time as there is a very established portage around the meadow. By the time we arrived on an empty Pan Lake, the winds had picked up from the south. We checked out both campsites and decided we liked the eastern site much better as it had an easier sandy landing area and better tent pads, so we unloaded, ate lunch, and set up camp.

We decided not to go out fishing right away as rain was in the forecast again, and sure enough, it clouded up throughout the afternoon with thunderstorms rolling in from about 4:00-6:00 PM. After dinner we trolled around the lake to no avail, then spent an hour and a half looking for the portage from Pan to Kivandeba and instead just bushwacked to see the lake. We never did find the portage on either end. We had been hoping to get a canoe into Kivandeba to check out the beginnings of what tomorrow could be a trek towards the infamously hard to reach John Ek lake, but unfortunately we had to abandon that plan before it really even got into motion.

That night we had the best sunset of the trip, a beautiful end to another full day of enjoyment in the wilderness.

Today was our day to "sleep in"- we didn't get out of the tent until just after 7:00 AM, which for us is a late start to the day. We spent most of the windy day fishing Anit, Kiviniva, and Pan. We caught several smaller pike along with pike at 26", 27", and 30", a nice 18" largemouth bass, and even managed to find some decent sized bluegills in the lily pads with some mini-mites. Overall it was our best fishing day of the trip.

"Did you look in the pop tart box" has become the answer given whenever something is missing. It was Jaden's response yesterday when I couldn't find the saw and again today when I misplaced my needle nose pliers. He's a real smartass sometimes, but his timing on both of these deliveries was perfect and made us both laugh. During the early afternoon we stayed in camp due to the winds. At 4:30 we went back out fishing and promptly got rained on for the second time on this trip when the forecast said "0%" for rain. The rain was light though, so we just fished through it and caught several smallmouth bass along a nice reef area south of the western campsite. We kept 2 for a very tasty black beans and rice w/fish dinner and tossed back a fat 19"er that Jaden hauled in through the thick weeds around the reef.

After dinner the clouds broke and left us with the indelible image of the trip- a double rainbow so clear and bright that it looked painted onto the sky. The base of it formed only about 10' off our shoreline almost as though it had sprung out of the log there. We sat and admired that rainbow until the clouds came back and washed the colorful image away.

I slept in the hammock last night, and despite it not being any special setup or having any of the bells and whistles of a "real" sleeping hammock, it was way better than sleeping on the ground. I'll be looking into some options for future trips for sure. We woke up to a dense fog and everything was soaking wet from a heavy dew. There was no wind at all and it was eerily quiet all around us. We had a 5 hour travel day back to Polly, so despite the wet and the fog, we got packed up and on the move.

The thick humid air made it feel like we were in some tropical jungle, but we knew we had to get to Polly to find a site before it got too busy. Anit, Kiviniva, Kawishiwi River, Malberg, Koma and all the portages made for a tough morning and early afternoon, Once on Polly, every site we passed on the main body of the lake was occupied, but we got lucky when the site on the east side of the south narrows was open. That site isn't on all maps, and we watched a group coming towards us with their map out go right past it. We could hear them talking to each other about hoping to find a site soon as they passed us. We felt very lucky and a little bit guilty to snag that campsite, especially since it turned out to the such a good site.

After arriving, we both took a quick swim and had lunch before setting up camp. The morning fog and clouds had given way to blue skies, with a light breeze building throughout the day to help us not notice how much warmer it had become. We fished along the south shorelines for a couple hours in the early evening but only caught two small pike. The fish weren't really biting, but for the first time on this trip the black flies certainly were, so we headed back in rather than face their wrath.

We lazed around camp after dinner, had a nice campfire and just relaxed and reflected on how great of a week we had been having. The mosquitoes came out again that night like clockwork, it was the 3rd night in a row that their arrival signaled it was 8:45 PM. They were thick enough to drive you inside the tent for about 45 minutes, and then almost non-existent outside of that small window.

It was Jaden's turn in the hammock last night and he agreed that it better than the tent. While he was still sound asleep, I put on my berkley choppo for the first time all week and caught a 16" SMB from camp on the first cast. I knew under the right conditions I would like the addition of that lure to my arsenal, and I look forward to finding more fish with it.

The day started out fairly clear and windy. We fished and explored the north and east ends of Polly but only caught 3 small pike despite several hours of effort. Polly looks like it should be a very good pike lake but it sure didn't fish like it while we were there. We also trolled the area in the narrows between the islands and our campsite every time we passed through, but never caught the walleye we knew had to be there somewhere. Ultimately the wind ended up winning on this day as 25-30 mph gusts from the south convinced us to get off the water around lunch time.

In the early afternoon, we watched in absolute awe as a nature documentary happened right before our eyes. We were sitting on the logs around the fire grate waiting for a weather update from our SPOT and looked behind us to see a mass of large ants (guestimate of 500+) all moving together towards us. We thought we may have kicked an ant hill on the way over to sit down, but couldn't figure out exactly where they had suddenly come from in such a large group. The ants followed each others path, spread out along a line about 15 feet long and a foot wide, with a few dozen stragglers. They marched right past us, up and over the fire grate logs on one side, then up the rocky incline past it and into the woods. We stopped watching them when they got 10-15' into the woods figuring that was the end of it. About 40 minutes later they came back in a much more spread out line, practically single file, with almost every ant carrying an ant pupa. We watched them disappear one by one back into their apparent source- a decaying tree stump on the other end of camp. For whatever reason, that ant squad was the moving crew today. The total area they covered where we could see them was 40-45 yards long, and probably double that based on the time it took them to get back. Its hard to imagine what it would be like moving your "families" entire future survival from one place to another, but we could only shake our heads somewhat in disbelief that we had watched it happen.

By mid afternoon clouds had covered the sky, followed by some on and off light rain and lightning until dinner time, but most of the storm stayed north. The winds died down, switched directions lightly a couple times and then died out again. The rumble of thunder continued on and off all evening with scattered light rain here and there. We just sat under the cedars at the back of camp and mostly ignored it until the mosquitoes once again pushed us inside and to bed a bit early in preparation for leaving in the morning.

When you have an 8 hour drive to get home and a few hours of wilderness to paddle through before that, its somewhat important to get an early start to your day. So for only the second time this week, I had to set an alarm. 5:30 AM should be early enough to need an alarm, but I was up by 5:15 so I packed up most of camp and let Jaden sleep a bit longer. We were on the water at 7:00 AM while most of the lake still seemed to be sound asleep. The 2 longer portages between Polly and Kawasachong were still wet from the morning dew and yesterday's rain, so there were a few muddy and slippery spots. Both Jaden and I had a couple times we slipped in the mud and nearly fell while carrying our loads, but thankfully neither of us got hurt.

When we got to Kawasachong, there were lots of people out fishing and all four sites looked occupied. We did see a couple fish get caught and I wish we would have had time to join them. But alas, we pushed through Kawasachong and Square and starting meeting groups headed in once we got to the river near Kawishiwi Lake. We did get a bit lost in the islands headed through Kawishiwi, but figured it out quickly enough to not lose too much time. When we rounded the last point and could finally see the landing, it was jam packed full of people There were 6 canoes and 15 people from 2 different groups trying to get things loaded. It was a true northwoods circus in every aspect, but we pulled off to the side, unloaded and got out of the way before any of them made any true progress. A long and uneventful drive home capped off yet another wonderful visit to the Boundary Waters, and planning has already begun for our next journey north!