Day 4 I was first up which would also turn into the routine. Again I bring our food down and greet the sunrise. After b-fast Rob and I would head out in my dad’s MNIII and fish. Ben and Kim would use the Souris river tippy boat from hell to fish from. My dad and his wife would end up hanging out at camp and pump water and relax. Rob and I headed out by some small islands with big drop offs which turned out to yield fish with each pass. Just then I look down to the end of the lake that would have normally been full of H2O and I see a moose. Yeah. I can’t believe how excited I was to be able to see this. I try to get my camera out of my pack that is tied to the thwart. Dam the tractor seats. Can’t hardly turn around in these things. I manage to get a couple of photos just has it hears us. One of my hopes was to see a moose. I get excited just thinking about it. All the years that my dad forced me as kid to go up to the BWCA ( I hated it when I was a kid,) I had never got to see a moose. I did see a bears butt as we rounded a corner of island when I was a child. Man those things can move, was gone in the blink of an eye. The next few days was all routine. We went out to fish after b-fast caught enough fish to feed the group for lunch then back out after lunch to catch enough fish for dinner. Fight to get the food up high. Then hang out on social rock with some good music, beverage and companionship. Then back into the smoldering tent to learn how to be close to my brother. The day that we going to head out of the woods was different depending on who you spoke to. (this would become an issue later that day) We left our nearly week long camp cleaner than we found it. Side note I had forgotten that one of the themes for this trip was we found some sort of eye wear at every lunch and or campsite we stopped at. Weird. Rob, Ben, Kim and I were ready to get back to the real world. I was missing my wife of 20 years, Rob was missing his new girlfriend (who is now his wife) and kids and Ben and Kim were missing their two young children. Dad was not ready to take out. Deep down I believe this was more to do with the fact that this may end up being the last time he would be up here with his boys. He always comes out of the woods at least a day earlier than planned. As we worked our way back to the numbered lakes Rob and I were dialed in and the boat was not as tippy as the way in. We hit the portage back to Hudson with fury. We somehow figured out how to single portage even taking extra stuff. I grabbed the misc. gear pack and canoe and Rob snagged the big pack with all the sleeping/cloths in it. We hammered the portage that day like it was our job. Not sure what we changed but we were a machine. Rob would go back to help others since we got our crap over in one shot while I loaded it up and helped others unload packs and get all the boats secure and ready. As we made our way into #3 lake dad was noticing that the sites were starting to be full (Thursday before labor day) and he wanted to stay in one more night. Rob turned into Switzerland and then the battle started in the middle of the lake #4. I think this the emotions took over the conflict. We ended up making our way over to our EP on lake #1. Dad was the one out paddling us on the way in but now was so far behind that we often lost sight of him. We ended up making one more stupid lap just before the EP which allowed dad to catch up. We all loaded up on a very busy landing. We made our way back to CCO and I made a b- line for the showers. We all got cleaned up and settled in to our bunk house and then headed back Sir G’s for a nice meal. We had just sat down in front of the windows when one hell of a storm front rolled in and it was raining cats and dogs sideways down main street. I could not resist saying to my dad “good thing we got out of the woods when we did” he agreed with a slight smile that only I saw. He knew it was the right decision. As a father I know how he felt as I always get a little grumpy when I know the time spent with my boys is coming to an end even if they do drive you crazy the whole time we are together. It continued to pour all night. Ben, Kim, Rob and I decided to visit the local beverage establishment to chat. Dad and his wife headed back to the bunk house to continue to sort gear out.