Originally we had planned to explore the area south of Crab on the last day. Our return tow was set up for 1:00 pm. We got up, a bit late and sore from the previous day’s bushwhacking. I tried my cell phone to call VNO and schedule the tow for 3:00 pm instead, but didn’t get a signal. The satellite phone would have worked, but at the beginning of the trip we had decided against carrying one.

Instead of exploring, we took our time breaking camp and then began fishing a few spots where John had marked a “W” for walleye. Now, there had been a few “W’s” marked in Cummings too, but those had only produced smallies, so we didn’t expect much. I caught a couple smallies but soon Deb pulled out a nice eating sized walleye. I took a quick picture of it and we released it. No use keeping it since we had to be getting back to the portage soon.

We paddled over to the beginning of the portage and met Bob Derr there a few minutes later. Bob grabbed the canoe & a pack and headed across to where he had the towboat waiting. Deb & I took the other two packs across. I met one of our customers on the portage, a husband & wife team.

I offered to share the towboat with them, which they gratefully accepted. I said that the both canoes could stay on the towboat for the drive back to Ely since we were all going to the same spot. Bob brought us all back over to the Burntside landing where the VNO Suburban and the couple’s car were waiting to take us home.

This was a good trip. We saw the moose close up, which we loved. We didn’t get to fish Buck & Western, but in the end, it really didn’t matter. We did catch a walleye even if it was at the end of the trip. We had it easy on the long portage (since we had help) and hard on the windy return to Crab. Not a lot of loon’s song but heard the overhead symphony of the geese calling to each other while flying southward to their winter homes. Yes, a very good trip!