We awoke to a wet and rather chilly morning. Let me tell you coming from Missouri where it had been 105+ for a few weeks prior to our trip, the mid 50's and rain was mighty cold! I had on my nylon pants, a short sleeve shirt, and a long sleeve shirt on top of that and I was still cold. I crawled out of the sack, put on my rain gear and made some hot chocolate. Man was that what the doctor ordered!

I turned on the weather band and listened to the forecast. Gloom and doom was forecast. Bob and Lisa decided to go out and fish some and Daph and myself contemplated on what to do. The question was believe the forecast and head out or take our chances and stay. The forecast was for severe thunderstorms with a high chance of hail over night. We listened to the forecast for another hour or so off and on and it wasn't changing. The weather as of now was super calm, not a ripple on the water, absolutely no winds, and clear skies. I yell to Daph and ask is she's ready to go. She said and I quote, "you aren't messing with me are you?". She had had enough of our trip partners as much as I had, and with the possibilities of super rough water on our way out, we decided to make a choice and opt for the weatherman being correct. Bob and Lisa paddle by and we tell them what we are going to do and they decide to stay and live out the storm. As it turns out we were both right. The storm didn't hit that night, but we had the best paddling we've had on our way out.

I was sad to leave early but to be honest, I was ready to leave. It was all I could do to keep from "going off" on our trip mates and their actions throughout this trip. I hope that this report doesn't sound like I (we) had a terrible time because we didn't on one side of the coin. When we were alone, it was all we were expecting it to be, beautiful and peaceful but on the flip side it was a like being in an episode of the Twilight Zone!

We arrive back at Rockwoods and are greeted by Linn and low and behold who do we see on the beach. Kendra and her daughters. They were leaving on their trip the next day. We talked for quite a while and I was impressed by this woman. She has more experience in the wilderness than I'll ever have, has done more tripping that I ever will, and has more guts than I do. Kendra, for what it's worth, it was nice meeting you and your daughters!