We have a healthy travel day ahead of us, since our extraction was to be at 8am on the next day. We put the fishing rods away, and push through William Lake and through the unnamed pond and portages on its western end, as we turn south towards Darky Lake. I had recalled that a couple of these portages were tough, as we had taken them in the other direction some years earlier. As I am halfway down the trail on the first one carrying my large pack, my ankle just buckles as I was walking across a sideways sloping granite boulder, and down I go. Wearing my rubber portage boots just doesn’t give me as much ankle support and I have a weak right ankle from multiple sprains in the past. The familiar rush of adrenaline and a hot feeling wash through me as I wince in pain trying to get back up. This is a sprain, and a pretty bad one at that. Not a good omen, as we have more miles to make ahead of us. We pass down the creek and over the next portage, which has a pretty photo op looking back.

We stop for lunch at the “Hilton” on the north end of Darky and I take a peek at my rapidly-swelling ankle. I wrap it as best I can and get my boot back on before it swells too much to make that possible. We fish for awhile in that area, and have fun with several walleyes, as a decent breeze is blowing from the straight south. It’s time to go, so up the Darky River we go. It narrows down and the first portage is near a steep cliff face.

I’m limping pretty badly, but the portages aren’t too bad along the route. We could see the debris from all of the portage clearing that had been done last fall after a huge blowdown/wind event hit this area last August. I can imagine how impassable that area must have been after that, seeing how much work was needed on just some short portages. The river current is not strong, but is flowing with us, and some very pretty river grass undulates with the current as we paddle over it. Very happy to see Minn Lake, as I know portaging is behind me for the day. A couple of camps we check out are also in bad shape from blowdowns, so we take one further southeast, which gets us closer to our exit anyway. It was definitely a buggy night, and I wasn’t in the mood for much fishing, so I popped some ibuprofen and did my best to keep my ankle elevated.

Day 8: 6/20

An overcast morning broke as we packed up camp. On the last day, there is always a more quiet camp, as we know we won’t be doing this again for another year. It’s a reflective and somewhat somber time, but I’m preoccupied by my throbbing ankle. Rain pelts us as we head through McAree Lake and upside down aluminum powerboats let us know we are at Black Robe portage. It’s an easy walk, but made trickier by the muddly conditions. A man and his son are out in a canoe fishing on the LLC end, and let us know that they are sharing the same towboat ride that we are. Soon, a couple from Iowa joins us, and they had been out for a week celebrating their anniversary. We swap stories as the towboat from Anderson’s picks us up for the ride back to Crane Lake. It’s been a great trip for us fishing-wise, with the usual ups and downs that can come with the territory up there. We’ll be back, but with better ankle supporting boots for me!