DAY 8 – Another nice day, but one that was a little sad as we planned to start heading back. Unlike most BW trips, we felt ready to go. Despite a couple attempts at washing clothes and baths, stuff was starting to smell something funky and the general aches and pains of canoe camping were adding up. We broke camp first thing and fished our way out. The wind was at it again, but this time helping push us towards the portage. We managed a couple of pike and I caught a bonus upper 30 ski to seal up irregular. The portage heading back was a little drier this time but we still got fairly wet. With a strong wind at our backs, we made great time heading north towards mather. Wanting another shore lunch, we trolled a fair amount of the way back. Heading through the ‘mather cross’, I hooked a fish that stopped the canoe. It was a bit of a tricky fight in high winds, but managed to land a pike which went 44 inches. I couldn't believe it fit in our net. It was a nice highlight for the trip, but it also helped confirm our estimates of the larger muskies we had follow.

A quick stop at the mather man campsite for a fish lunch and we pushed on. The two rougher portages went a little better, and with some evening to spare we rolled into camp at the sideways ‘S’ lake we had targeted and passed on the way in. It was a nice site, and featured a flat ledge a couple inches above the water where one could pitch their tent if they wanted. We didn’t, but it looked like others had. A nice sunset was soon followed by a short storm with some rain to fall asleep to.

DAY 9 – We woke up and started to break camp down. The campsite is located on an island that had weeds around it and within a half hour of shore fishing, my dad and I caught several pike, keeping one for breakfast. After eating, we pushed off and continued our back track. The day was mostly overcast and cool, great conditions to travel in. Having been through a week before, we were able to make good time and reaching the island campsite on jester in the early afternoon.

We choose to spend the rest of the day on Jester. I wanted to stay to give us more WCPP time and take a shot at catching some walleyes that were supposedly in the lake. For dad, I think he just didn’t want to do the long portage that afternoon, preferring to save it for when we were fresh in the morning. Crossing garner in the morning also seemed like a better idea then heading into an evening breeze, and it turned out to be a great decision. Once camp was up, we headed out to try and catch a fish meal. We spent about an hour fruitlessly chasing walleyes, with a short 10 minute break to cast for pike which produced 2 eater sized fish and another nice one in the mid 30”s.

We kept one pike for supper and continued to look for waldo until some ominous clouds appeared over the treeline. An adrenaline fueled paddle back, and we were tying down the canoe when the storm broke. We sat under the tarp, re-packing our bags for the next day’s portages and before we knew it, we needed headlamps. We quickly made supper, made sure camp was secure and went to bed.

DAY 10 – We awoke to a quiet, overcast morning and set about getting ready for our final leg. The long portage seemed to go a little easier on the way back, perhaps by this point we had our portaging legs under us. It was also more downhill coming out from this direction. Once again, not having swatted a single bug the rest of the trip we ran into mosquitoes on the middle portage but were prepared with spray this time. Trying to take our time, we lingered looking at falls and admiring the scenery around us. All too soon, we were at the last portage, pushing off into garner leaving the WCPP behind us. The lake was dead calm except for occasional wakes from fisherman. We fished a little on the far west side on our way out and caught a couple more pike that we cleaned to pack out with us. With the current, the paddle back through the river went better. The sun soon broke out and the day became unexpectedly hot. Being the weekend, we ran into a couple boats on the way back. The boat drivers looked like they were having a lot of fun going through the switchbacks, but given the curvy course it was easy enough to hear them coming and pull to the side in a straight away so they could pass.

We were happy to see our van still at the access, and after loading up, changed into some fresh clothes we had stashed for the drive back. The drive out seemed to take as long, if not longer than coming in. Eventually we made it to pavement, and the rest of the drive was expedited. Well, other than a short sightseeing trip due to navigator error. Stopping only for gas and a sandwich, we pulled into my sister’s a little after 1am.
DAY 11/12 – We drove back to the cities the following morning. Day 12 had been planned as a flex day in case of weather or whatever else might have come up. We originally thought about staying another day either at garner or Beresford and fishing more, but we were sore and stinky. Plus, this way we didn’t have to drive back on Labor Day with the rest of the weekend warriors. In hindsight, we felt this was the right call as having the extra day to decompose and re-acclimate to civilization was much needed. Its always a little bit of culture shock for me after a trip when I find myself driving through the cities or stuck in traffic when not 24hrs earlier, I was essentially alone miles from anyone. But gear needed to be aired, cleaned and put away and that’s usually a good transition process for the extra day.

As far as other random thoughts go, we brought a water filter and some iodine pills but never used either. We carried in a gallon of fresh water which got us through the first 2 days. We drank straight from the lakes once past Jester and used the container to collect water for the rest of the trip and bridge going through garner.

One mistake we made was bringing in a gallon of frozen water. I attended a seminar where the speaker used one in an insulated pack to keep a weeks worth of fresh meat cold, then drinking the water once it melted. Given the longer trip, we thought this was worth trying. It did keep our food well, but we would have been happy without it and it added a lot of weight. And at some point during unloading, we set it down a little too hard and cracked the jug which then slowly leaked as it thawed. Another item we brought but never used was a depth finder. While I would have been curious how deep the lake was, all the fish were up shallow like any traditional shield lake and it was never necessary to find deeper, secondary spots since there was no pressure up there. I had also thought about using it to find the midlake reefs, but the one short calm, sunny midday window we had that we looked for them, we were able to find both visually easy enough, using triangulation. The water was clear and you could see the rocks just like in the satellite pictures. We didn’t see anything fish wise, but it was calm, sunny and midday. I still wish we would have been able to fish them more. It was hard not to notice on the day of the fly in fisherman, the reefs were the first spot they went to.

Expect for the long portage which cut a corner, and the last one into irregular which bridged the water systems, every other one followed the river. It was less a path between two points like one finds in BWCA, and more following the rock and where ever plants didn’t grow. I enjoyed it, but having to walk on more rock slabs does increase your opportunity to slip when it is wet. We did find blazes on most the portages, but they were hard to see from the water.

While we saw plenty of critters, they were more shy than we expected. The eagles and loons in particular keep a large distance where as in the BWCA, you can paddle up to a tree an eagle is in or have a loon swim under your canoe. We saw a couple moose, but no other large animals. We didn’t have any animal issues the food. Our approach is different than others, we put everything in a garbage bag, twisted and sealed in the pack and then put the pack in another tied up garbage bag. Some cups and a pot are placed on top to alert you if something is noising around so you can ‘go deal with it’. We’ve never been fans of hanging food, for several reasons. It is almost impossible to find a branch that provides sufficient height and space from the trunk. And here, the trees were smaller and scragglier than in the BWCA. I know a lot would disagree with our approach, but I think hanging is mostly just tradition by this point. We have yet to see a bear in all our years and maybe its luck, or just keeping a clean camp.

Going to the bathroom was a bit different too, not having any thrones like in the BWCA. After getting over the initial awkwardness, I decided I preferred it this way. Things went quicker and not having a collection of flies swarming around was a pleasant plus. We had brought a trowel up for digging a hole, but never used that either. Given the rock dominated environment, we ended up just peeling back the thick moss to create a hole and then replacing it afterwards.

I enjoyed the trip immensely. If I did go back I would visit a different park of the park, for the one after another walleyes or try to come into Irregular from the south to experience a different route. The drive was long and the trip itself cost much more than BWCA, but it did offer a unique experience. I thoroughly enjoyed the solitude that one doesn’t find very easily in the BW anymore. It was a fantastic trip, and one I'd highly recommend.