Friday, July 24, 2009 We woke this morning to a thunderstorm so we didn’t get to leave as early as we had hoped. It was snuggly in the tent and I really didn’t want to get up. However, my back was screaming at me to get moving for the day. Once I was finally able to sit up I started packing my gear. I let Em sleep - no reason for us to both be up yet. I was actually quite warm last night - I got too warm in my sleeping bag and had to remove layers. Much better than being too cold!

Once Em was awake we got things in order, cleaned up camp and loaded the canoe. This campsite was fairly clean compared to the one on Pine. I found only a few pieces of candy wrappers, some broken glass and as always twisty ties. Some before us had also left a nice length of rope tied to the tree. We took that with us - no sense in leaving it there.

I forgot to look at my watch when we left but know that we left Pine Lake at 10:30. The portage back over was still a hard one. I admire the strength that Em has and her ability to maneuver that long heavy canoe up and down those steep slipper hills with rocks, mud and needles. Today was the only day that we used bug dope - they were absolutely vicious after that rain this morning. There was virtually no breeze either. We leap frogged on this last portage and that worked pretty well. We loaded the old beast back up and off we went. I hoped that we’d be able to make it back to the EP in about two hours. Six miles in two hours? Hmmmmmmmm

The wind was at our backs so it really helped in the paddling. We made really good time. We sang silly songs and made up our own lyrics. Next time we’re going to go through her Girl Scout journal and learn the songs they sang. It helps with the monotony of the paddling especially when the paddling gets rough. About midway through the lake I started freaking out - was totally having a panic attack. I felt that the waves were huge. They weren’t but in my freaking out head they looked like Tsunamis. Emily got me calmed down- reassured me that all is good and it soon passed. Not sure what was up with that. The sun came out and it was a gorgeous morning. We had thoughts of staying on Pine again tonight but decided to just keep moving on home. We’re both beat and I would like to have a day or two at home before going back to work. Emily wants to get back and hang with her friends at the fair tomorrow.

As we neared the EP the wind came up - at our back - but made the waves big and she had a difficult time steering. We found the EP and with the rain the water was high enough that we shot right through the little creek - that was really nice. I looked at my watch again after we had been paddling on McFarland for a while and it was 12:45 pm - I did a pretty darn good job of estimating the time it would take to paddle Pine - crazy.

We had a fantastic trip -even though we decided to cut it short. I’m not quite ready to go again - give it a couple of days and then I will be.

See that bubble? It’s MINE!