Friday, September 28, 2012 Our last day. We hadn’t had any creatures that woke us up in the middle of the night, since the first night. So our last night would be like our first night! About 3:00 am, I woke up and looked over at a wide eyed wife!!!!! Something was out there and it just walked right past our tent! Then came the “aren’t you going to go and look and see what it was” look from her. A beaver decided to walk right by our tent and proceeded down to the shore line to finish chewing on a stick. So, of course, I made the little misses join me on this cold and crisp morning and we watched him for a bit and then crawled back into the warm sleeping bags!!! After the sun rose, we proceeded to start packing up for our trek out of the BWCA. All packed up and ready to go, we let Miranda take the stern and steer our way out! We decided to go south and go to the 8 rod portage. This tree was blown down some time ago, but we were amazed how big it grew on top of a ROCK!!! We continued on to the little beaver dam and then up and over the 8 rod portage. It was a neat little portage. I did see my first snake in boundary waters there. Not sure what it was, but it was really tiny, no more than 6-7 inches long and thinner than a pencil. Miranda led us across the lower part of Upper Pauness Lake and south up the LIS. Completing our first trip over Elm Portage, we were taking a little break before heading back, and we noticed a Chesapeake Bay retriever coming down the trail. Shortly after, we met the owner wearing a flying moose hat. We spent a while talking to NCTRY and learning about his and Bernice’s trip of 40 days in the boundary waters. It was really nice to meet him and Bernice and listen to his travels. It was truly amazing to meet someone who completed such a journey. We wished NCTRY a safe trip home and we headed back to pick up the rest of the gear. With Miranda’s “short cuts” we made it the rest of the way up the river and to the entry point. We portaged our gear up the parking lot and in true captain fashion, Miranda offered to carry the canoe the last half of the portage. It was a fun trip and one I am sure Miranda will not forget anytime soon, I knew Rhonda and I will not!

Thanks for Reading Miranda, Faron, Rhonda