It got cold Friday night--only an official low of 30 degrees but it seemed a lot colder than that and much to my dismay, we woke with at least a 1/2" of snow on the ground Saturday morning and more wind (imagine that!). I've been up there in May with some snow flurries, but NEVER with measurable snow on the ground, and I have a new found appreciation for those who go winter camping. In the back of my mind I was wondering if we should pull up camp and head back to Ely, but at the same time I realized I didn't want to pack up camp and paddle back to the entry point in those conditions.

While none of the guys were thrilled with the weather, we somehow managed to make the best of it. And since we'd come up to go fishing, we all bundled up and headed out, sitting in snow showers until 2:00 p.m. or so. Thankfully, we caught fish--more walleye, crappie and perch, though I honestly don't ever remember my hands being so cold while fishing, even ice fishing. It was nothing short of brutal.

Thankfully around 2:00 p.m. the snow showers stopped and the sun came out for a while. Hard to believe, but we were ecstatic when the temps climbed into the low 40's. And like the previous two days, we threw out more ciscoes on slip bobbers and we caught more large northerns. The largest that night was a 36" hog.