Again, we both slept in. I slept better last night. I know that both nights he didn’t have any troubles sleeping at all. He never does - especially when he’s tired. We woke to sunny skies and a calm lake - it was gorgeous but everything was still soaking wet and there was no breeze to speak of.

We snacked for breakfast - Isaac had cocoa, chips, crackers and candy - that’s why I’m “da bomb” as a mom. I wasn’t really hungry - but we both ate up the rest of the fruit cups as well. We debated on whether to go home or not - he was really torn but in the end he decided that he wanted to go home today because he really wanted to see dad.

I headed back to the tent to start packing things up and gave him the chore of putting our wet stuff out in the sun to try and dry some of it out before having to pack it all up - everything was absolutely soaked. I was still freezing, had my long johns on under my fleece pants - what a baby I am. However, as I started working on packing things up I did get warm, and the sun was shining in the tent - it felt so good. I had to lay down in there for a little while to enjoy the warmth of the sun - it felt so wonderful. In the mean time I could hear Isaac down by the water tossing rock in - the big kerplunks of bigger rocks and the littler splashes of smaller ones he found. He loves to do that and could sit and toss rocks into the water for hours. Like I said - he doesn’t need much to entertain him. In fact, he only brought two dinosaurs on this trip besides his coloring stuff. And he barely played with the dino’s.

After lying there for, probably too long, I noticed that the wind was coming up. Isaac came running up to the tent and told me that it looked like the waves were going in the the direction that we needed. I explained to him that we wouldn’t truly be able to tell the direction of the wind until we got on open water because we were protected in that little cove and the wind kind of swirled all about in there. I didn’t cherish the thought of fighting an head wind once again, but he really wanted to get going so we moved quicker and got the gear all packed up. It actually didn’t take long. I was surprised that I could get the guide gear tarp back into the original bag WITH the mosquito netting - so often those things don’t fit well. However, it worked and we were packed and ready to go.

I had him do a final canvas of the campsite to make sure we didn’t leave any garbage lying around, made one last trip to the potty, loaded the canoe and shoved off. Paddling through the cove, of course was an easy paddle as it is protected.

Once we got out into open water it was very apparent that we’d be fighting a stiff south wind - a head wind - once again. Ugh I was so frustrated and this one was stronger than the one on Thursday. We struggled a bit, but were able to make it. We were treated to two loons real near our canoe. Because I didn’t want to stop paddling due to the wind I didn’t pull the camera out to get photos.

We stopped at the Island that marks the entry into the BWCA.

It was a nice place to land; we tied the canoe off on a downed tree and took a few photos. He had fun with that as did I. As we were getting ready to get back in the canoe, Ducks and his party stopped/paddled near and we visited for a few minutes. That was fun and it’s always so nice to put a face to a name. They paddled on as we continued to “play” with our cameras. I wasn’t in any particular hurry to be getting home now that I knew we were close to the campground and canoe landing.

We shoved off from shore and hugged the eastern shore line on the way back. We once again ran into Ducks, this time we stopped and visited a bit longer and asked where each other was from etc. Isaac is so social as well - he thought it was really cool that we met someone from BWCA.com there and he asked if I ever talked to Ducks. I reminded Ducks that he should join us in chat some time. Isaac was surprised that he wasn’t in there - he thinks that all BWCA.com members are chat-a-holics like some of us are. He was cute in his thinking.

Eventually we made it back to the landing, as we saw it in the distance, he actually noticed it first. Isaac hollered “I see it!” he was so excited. We pulled up, unloaded and I portaged one of the packs with me up to the campground to get the van. Again, he was such a trooper helping me out carrying what he could. He helped balance the heavy packs as I got them on my shoulders, helped straightening out the straps if they were crooked. I should have weighed the packs before I left. The gear pack, on the way in, was the heaviest and I almost did a turtle going up the hill towards the campsite. That would have been bad. Anyway, we got the van loaded and I got the canoe up on top of the van all by myself - again, he was a strong little trooper and helped me hold it up so I could walk it to my shoulders. What a little man.

As I was organizing the van and strapping down the canoe he changed into his swim trunks and went swimming in Sawbill at the canoe landing - I’m glad he did that as it was a bit warmer today than it had been. He needed that relaxing fun.

Once I got the van all loaded up, I pulled it off to the side and went down to sit and watch him play and took a few photos. He was too chicken to get all the way wet at first, but finally he did dunk his body, not his head though, and I think there was some shrinkage - you can tell by the look on his face in the photo!

Not sure what time it was when we left, but we made one last trip to the potty and off we went. We stopped several times along Sawbill Trail to take photos of flowers, blow down and the Sawtooth Mountains and at the one overlook.

Overall we had a fantastic trip and I think that I have a new paddle partner for many years to come. Now we just need to convince his daddy to join us. That's our goal for next year!