Everyone was asleep early last night. I slept well but woke up early and finally got up around 0430. Everyone else was still asleep, so I puttered around getting organized and eventually made some coffee, hot chocolate and oatmeal. John got up around 545 and I woke the kids at 630. I rolled up the sleeping bags and thermarests while they ate breakfast, and by 715 we were loaded up and pulled out. We were at Tanner rapids within 15 minutes, and by 745 were reloaded and off again. At the portage we ran into a group of 4 who had been camped on Tanner for 5 or 6 days and they were heading to Twin Falls for a pickup before driving back to Chicago. We made it to Twin Falls by a little after 9, did the last portage, and were at the floating dock by 10AM. The towboat arrived right on schedule at 1036, with a group of 6 men coming out of Crooked, where they, too, had encountered heavy winds that made it difficult to stay on the reefs. We loaded up and the kids picked a Gatorade out of the cooler, while I enjoyed an ice cold Coke. After a quick trip across La Croix and back up the Loon River, we were through Vermilion and Sand Point and back on Crane Lake. Customs was quick and we moved on to the dock at Anderson’s where we separated our stuff and they ran us back across the lake to mom’s cabin by about 1pm, where we were greeted by chocolate chip cookies fresh from the oven (again, thanks mom!). It was a great trip, and I couldn’t be more proud of how well the kids held up. They definitely have some stories to tell and both said they would like to go again. I’m reminded of how much work is involved in a trip like this, and how difficult it can be at times just to control a canoe on a windy lake, let alone fish in a productive manner. We really only fished part of two days on Poobah plus a couple hours in the afternoon on Tanner. However, the kids both learned the Palomar, improved clinch, and uni-knots, and got some great experience playing and landing quality fish. They also learned to split wood, start a fire, sterilize water, read a map & compass, and hopefully some other useful things. I'm reminded of the importance of good planning but also flexibility in choosing campsites, having a backup plan, etc.

I’m also very grateful to my Uncle John for his help and expertise, without which I couldn’t (and wouldn’t) have made the trip. Finally, I’m lucky my mom and her husband are so generous and supportive of my crazy expeditions (they accompanied us to Batchewaung back in 2012). On a final note, I was thrilled with my Seal Line dry bags – I took a 5 liter bag, in which I kept my passport, external battery for my iphone, and spare batteries for headlamps, etc. I also took a 20 liter bag, which was perfect size to carry one-handed across the portages, and large enough to hold multiple smaller stuff sacks with tootbrushes, depth finder, steri-pen, etc. Finally, I want to thank everyone on the BWCA forum for numerous tips and advice. In particular, I used the Motion-X GPS app ($1.99 in the app store) as a backup to my map & compass orienteering, and it functioned flawlessly. I didn’t even end up needing my external battery, as the phone lasted for 4 days on airplane mode. On another note, I wore a good pair of gore-tex hiking boots to portage in, as I learned my lesson in 2012 trying to portage in water shoes.