Tuesday, August 14, 2007 We rose before first light and broke down camp while the coffee was cooking. By the time we got the fire doused and the canoe loaded, the light was sufficient for paddling. We paddled/trolled down Angleworm to the portage and prepared ourselves mentally for the battle we were about to fight. We were of course much lighter going out than coming in and we managed to make it out with minimal break stops. After contemplating the difficulty of an “Honest Hike” we dubbed the Angleworm portage the Gospel Trail because by the time you got to the end of it, you were definitely a believer and definitely asking for some type of divine intervention.

When we reached my 1987 Isuzu Trooper with it's homemade roof rack we experienced the great paradox of wilderness tripping in modern days: so happy to be headed to family, showers, and 24 hour pharmacies BUT tremendously somber to be leaving this great wild place and everything it contains to include the beauty of a misty morning, the comaraderie of the hard trail, the great fishing, and the PRIVELAGE to live how our ancestors used to live on the trail. Oscar put it best on the way home; “I don’t know what happened in there, but I will never be the same. I will however, be back many times for more, and with more BWCA virgins".