Thursday, May 26, 2016 We enjoyed a leisurely morning of packing up. We wanted to make it to Polly today to reduce our traveling on the last day since we needed to be out of the water by noon to make it to my younger brother’s high school graduation. We knew we wanted to hit the rapids on the way out so we kept our fishing gear accessible with everything else packed nicely in the canoe. It was tough leaving the site knowing our trip was going to be coming to an end but we wanted to make the most of our last full day. We spent about 1.5-2 hours fishing the rapids with amazing luck. We were pulling in smallies, averaging 16” every third cast and man they fought good. We talked with a couple other groups during the time we were fishing and we both had an amazing time. When the hits started slowing down a bit, we decided it was time to head out. We made it to Polly with ease as the wind began to pick up, AGAIN! Theme of the trip for sure! We wanted to get an island site on Polly because we have never stayed on an island together in BWCA. We get to the first island site where we see people pulling away. They said they just stopped there for lunch and it was a great site. We excitedly pull up the canoe and unload because we already knew it was a 5 star site. We grab some gorp and walk around the paths to see what we have to work with. Found the laterine and then follow the path along the shore to the other side of the island where we find not just one but three very fresh piles of bear scat (appropriately size as one was large with two smaller ones). As we make our way back to our things, we discuss our options. Neither of us feel very comfortable staying at the site so we pack back up and head out. As we paddle through Polly, we realize that with the wind it will be hard to fish the lake and after killing it with the smallies at the rapids, we don’t feel the need to fish all night once again. We make the decision to head all the way back to Kawishiwi to camp for the night. We pass a lot of groups coming in on our way out, all heading for Malberg. I don’t think they all got sites out there. We also pass a group with young kids that were camping on Kawishiwi that were filled with questions. We just kept on pushing until we found a nice little site on a peninsula. We really liked the site but there probably wasn’t room for more than one tent. We slowly set things up, cast a little from shore and decide to make dinner. Rice and summer sausage. This tasted yummy after a hard day. We took the canoe out for a little bit with the wind dying down without much luck. This was the laziest evening we had on the trip and it felt nice just to sit around camp and reflect. We discuss future trips and determine we like to stay on the move, away from people but enjoyed the length of this trip. We go to the tent for some back rubs before falling asleep.