We woke up at 3 to try to get an early start and get away from the crowds as soon as we could. We had a 4 hour drive up to Ely from our home in Wisconsin in which I slept almost the whole way. We arrived in Ely at just after 8 and stopped at The Great Outdoors for some last minute supplies, leeches, and fishing permits. Then we stopped at the ranger station and picked up our permit and headed off to the entry point to get on our way. We were paddling out the narrow creek at 9:30. The first portage wasn’t hard but it’s the rockiest one that I’ve ever seen you hardly ever had a spot to step. Then on to the formidable 120 rod up and down rocky portage that lived up to all the hype. The day was calm with very light breeze and temps in the low 80s so it was a beautiful August day! The rest of the portages went fairly smoothly for the most part and we stopped to eat a lunch of sandwiches, grapes, carrots, and granola bars afloat on boot. We were planning on staying on Fairy but we made good time and we hadn’t seen anyone since fourtown. So we kept on and had two sites in mind to stay on gun but they were both taken so we had to settle on our 3rd option on the North shore near the portage. We arrived at our site at around 1:30. We set up camp quick and then went out to collect firewood and pump some water. Then we decided to go for a swim and it felt great as we were all hot and sweaty from portaging. Then Brad and me decided to go out fishing for a bit and see if we could find were the fish were hanging out. We caught a couple bass and northern pike but nothing with too much size. The awesome thing with going up with the family is we have supper ready when we get back to camp which is wonderful. We had a supper of instant cheesy potatoes and ham. After supper I went out fishing with my dad in the narrows at gun. We caught a few bass a couple pike and a perch but 6 fish in 2 hours was pretty poor fishing so it was a little bit of a bummer. Back at camp we had a nice campfire and talked some as a family and everyone headed to be at around 10. I stayed up a bit and watched the stars and a lightning storm off in the distance which was simply amazing. Gods creation is incredible! It rained a little during the night just to make everything wet.

Woke up to a beautiful sunrise and made a fire to boil some water for oatmeal. We packed up camp and ate breakfast as quickly as we could and left just before 9. This was a pretty short and easy day and all the portages went smoothly and we arrived at the site on Beartrap at 11:45. We set up camp to let stuff start to dry out and ate lunch of crackers, cheese, summer sausage, and trail mix. The wind was starting to pick up a bit and the weather was partly cloudy temps in the upper 70s. My brother and I went out to troll lindy rigs for a while and see if we could find where the fish were congregating because it didn’t look like the lake had much structure so we figured we could find them but we only caught a few pike in a couple hours and my dad caught a few small perch from camp. We got back to camp and I decided to paddle out and sit on the island and cast a slip bobber on the calm side off the 20 foot shelf and read my Bible. Lets just say I got a lot of time to read the Bible because the fish weren’t biting. After an hour or so the wind started to pick up more and the rain clouds rolled in and I headed back to camp and we played some cards and got the fire going for supper. We ate a supper of spaghetti at about 6 then my brother and I headed out trolling lindys for walleyes for the night. My brother caught one near the Home creek inlet and I told him we should turn around because there’s always a reason a fish is there and he proceeded to catch 3 straight. We trolled that 100 yard stretch for about an hour but didn’t have a whole lot of success after those 3 within 10 minutes. We thought we had a lot of hits but we couldn’t seem to catch anything and we lost several leeches to what we decided were those little tiny perch that were plentiful and would just nibble. We caught about 15 during our day at Beartrap. While we were fishing the temp dropped at least 15 degrees and we started to get cold and we headed back to camp at like 9:30. The family had a nice roaring fire that we all huddled close to for about an hour as we had some hot drinks and talked. Bed at 11.

I woke up at 6:30 and my mom and brother were already up. A cold front had went through during the night so it was freezing but the fog was incredible. My brother and I went out fishing for a while and tried fishing the spot we had caught a few the night before but with no luck. We were originally planning on spending two nights on Beartrap but because we had pretty much no luck fishing we decided to move one lake over to Thunder so my brother and I brought over some gear to claim our site over there as the rest of our family packed up camp. We decided to fish our way back and just as we got into the channel we dropped down our lindy rigs and after about 30 seconds I got a hit and set the hook into something pretty decent so I loosened my drag and fought what I figured was a decent Northern for a couple minutes before I caught my first glimpse of it and saw that it was a really nice walleye. I tired him out and swung him to my brother to land. We didn’t officially measure it but our estimate was 24-26 inches and is the biggest one I’ve caught. So that was super exciting and we figured we were in for a good day and night of fishing. We headed back to Beartrap to get the rest of our equipment and family and set up camp on Thunder by 11. We went swimming and did some relaxing. Some people took naps and I read some Bible. At 1 we ate lunch of suddenly salad and some gorp and beef sticks. Then us four kids well I guess young adults now as we are 18-25) decided to hike up a cliff and do some exploring. We climbed up to the top and the view was simply amazing! After that the girls went to collect firewood and Brad and me went fishing. We tried everything! Trolling lindys, jigging, casting and trolling raps, jig spinners in anywhere from 5 fow to the deepest 35 foot hole but nothing was biting. We then had some supper at like 6 of wild rice and fish that we had caught which was for once in 10 years not too much fish. After supper we went out agin catching a couple northerns but again nothing was biting. Had some chocolate chip muffin panckes and pudding for dessert around the campfire and looked at the stars for a while. Went to bed at 11.

Got up early and started to break camp as we wanted to get a site on fourtown for our last night and knew it was a popular lake for basecamps.I felt really groggy so I decided to go for a morning swim. It was very refreshing and made me feel a ton better!!! We were paddlimg out by 8 which is really good for my family. The day went pretty smoothly especially considering we were all tired . we finally saw ur first people we had seen in two days on GUn. My parents are getting older so we double packed for them and we arrived on Fourtown just after 11 and claimed a site on the Eastern side. It was a really nice site and would probably rate it as one of the top 5 campsites I’ve stayed at in the Boundary Waters. We unpacked and set up camp and I threw out a slip bobber and just relaxed as pretty much everyone else took naps. I caught a couple rock bass in an hour. Then we played a hearts tournament for an hour or so and then my brother and I went out to fish for a couple hours from like 4-6. We trolled lindys and caught a couple more rock bass, a smallie, and a perch. Came back to camp at 6 for supper of fettecuine alfredo then went back out fishing for a couple hours. Campfire then bed at 11.

Up by 7 and started packing up to head out. Had breakfast of triple berry pancakes then packed up camp and headed out the last few portages and conclude another successful trip to the boundary waters. Even though the fishing was the worst I've ever seen in a trip it was still fun because we got to spend time together as a family. we had great weather and got to see some glorious sunsets! This was a really pretty area as well.