When we all got up for breakfast under the tarp the rain had let up but there was a heavy mist and the weather radio was predicting high winds that afternoon and into the next day. We didn't want to but we choose to pack and leave. It was the right decision. We pushed off with the wind strengthening and the misty fog blowing at us like it was a light rain. We easily made the portage. As we started into Sawbill it was like the fog closed in. This lake isn't that large but we couldn't see either shore for a while as we made progress toward the EP. We arrived as the pier materialised out of the mist and we loaded up amongst some of the worst mosquitoes we'd had. Finally we were back on the road again. What we didn't realize was that our real adventure was about to begin. We drove through fog all down the Sawbill trail. When we got on hwy 61 to Duluth the wind really picked up pushing our van and canoe trailer around making for a tough drive. John had the wheel when we entered Duluth and he said the canoes looked "funny" in the rear view mirror. We pulled over as we entered Duluth and checked the canoe straps. All seemed well. As we crossed the Blatnik bridge John kept saying something isn't right so we limped across in the wind and traffic. When we got onto hwy 2 we pulled over and rechecked the trailer. Crap! The weld that held the tongue to the trailer had broken and the whole load was ripe to break loose in any direction and cause a real disaster. Especially if we had continued on out to the highway at higher speeds. We used a couple of ratchet straps to tie each front corner of the trailer to the hitch and went to the interweb for help. We located a muffler shop where we thought we might get some help with a weld. He took one look at it and wouldn't touch it. He did give us an address for Barker's Welding and Fabricating Shop. Of course it was a long way to get there. We limped along at a few miles an hour across Superior, found the shop, and they graciously agreed to help us out. We unloaded our canoes and gear in their parking lot and hung out in the van (the wind was really blowing now and it was in the low 40's outside). After about an hour the shop door opened and they wheeled the trailer out with fabricated steel plates welded into place to strengthen the tongue stronger than it had ever been. The bill was very reasonable and we were please to be on the road again. It struck us how incredibly lucky we had been and we stopped at a Holiday station on the edge of Superior to just take a break and mentally prepare ourselves for the drive home. For Terry and I it would be 8 hours. For the rest they still wanted to make it home to Aurora, IL that night. It was a long and windy drive home but I/we were never so grateful for a safe and happy BW trip under our belts.