Saturday, June 28, 2008 My watch alarm goes off at 4:00… sleeping bag is stuffed into its bag, sleeping pad is rolled and put into carrying bag. Everything else is placed where it is easy to get to and we exit the tent and start packing the Duluth pack. The wet tent is the last thing to go on top with the wet tarp. A quick cold breakfast of granola bars and drink mixes and cleaning camp and we are ready to start paddling. It is 5:00 am when start paddling, it is 5:16 when we reach the 220 rod portage into Lower Pauness. We see the Boy Scouts we have been following camped at the site near the portage and know that we will beat them out today! Along the portage trail I have a Grouse jump out and run in front of me for about 10 yards, before it runs back into the woods. While we had heard them at almost every campsite this was the first I had seen.

We start paddling on Lower Pauness to the 8 rod portage at 6:15. We do the short 8 rod up and over portage into Upper Pauness and then enter the Little Indian Souix River which we notice is running stronger that when we entered a week before. We paddle to the 60 rod portage where we notice the bugs were bad due to the rain. The waterfall we had seen the week before was running stronger than when we first saw it. It was after we left the 60 rod portage that we saw our first people of the day on the water. As we paddled from that portage we thought about the week we had had. We talked about how it had started hard, ended easy as everyone got used to the travel. We discussed how we might do something different or how some things could have been better. Overall there was a tone of sadness to the discussion that the trip was over and now it was going back to the world of work, cell phones and people. Although a hot shower and a good hot meal that I had not cooked had its appeal! By 8:30 we are at the entrance portage, I carry my normal load to the top, and start getting the truck ready by emptying out the front and putting the Yakima racks back on. Total distance traveled on this trip was 44.10 miles with approximately 36 of it being paddling and almost 8 miles of portages multiplied by 3 for double portaging makes out to be almost 24 miles of portaging. A good trip!!

By 9:00 we are headed to Voyager North, by10:45 we are showered and have shopped and headed to DQ for a meal. We do a little more shopping for trinkets for our wives and kids, mainly t-shirts before we head south to Arkansas.

We stop at Owatonna at the steak house for a good meal and then finish the drive. We drop off Heath to his wife and kids at 5:30 Sunday morning and I get home at 6:15 to a cup of good Coffee and my lovely wife. Dave and Charlie pack up their gear and drive off for the last hour of their drive home.

It is good to be home! I am rested and now ready to face that which is coming! I am filled with the peace that comes from being in the wilderness… the BWCA!