We usually enter Quetico Park on Memorial Day weekend, but this year SB had a professional commitment in early June so we entered the week before. As luck would have it Memorial Day was later, summer in the north country came earlier and the fishing was also hotter than usual for us.

We were up early for a dawn patrol of Lost Bay in hopes of experiencing some of the Bay's famous smallmouth action but all we connected with were pike, although JW caught a monster . We returned to camp for breakfast and then the long paddle south on North Bay, racing evil-looking low, black clouds and arriving at the channel leading to Burke Lake in the teeth of a serious squall. Heavy rain battered us as we pushed and pulled our way down the shallow channel and then across Burke Lake.

Paddling across Burke we debated whether to spend our last night on Inlet Bay, within a half hour of Prairie Portage, so SB could get back to Ely early June 3 or, for the first time in our many trips together head in a day early. We had marked several 4 and 5-star campsites and were carrying wood for a last campfire, but the steady rain, the fact that our 8-day conservation fishing licenses were expired, and the prospect of packing up camp in the rain at the crack of dawn in the morning lead us to the decision to bail out early. We were all soaked by this time, Gore-Tex notwithstanding, and getting cold, and the thought of hot showers and dinner in Ely helped swing the vote.

At Prairie Portage we checked in with LaTourell's, arranged for a tow boat pick up, made a quick lunch and coffee on the beach in front of the Canadian rangers' station and then we were on our way back to Moose Lake and hot showers, gear sorting, dinner and a group photo at Tofte Lake as the sun broke through the clouds. It would have been a beautiful evening on Inlet Bay after all.