Sunday, June 18, 2017 We woke up at 6:30 am to our alarms to get ready for our travel day out to Washington Island tow in Basswood. We were on the water a bit before 8:30, and miraculously enjoyed a tailwind all the way to the tip of United States Point. None of the portages along this route were nearly as rugged as the previous two days of portages. The portage into and out of the no name lake after Nub were quite steep, but not too rocky and pretty short. The Kett portages were very well maintained with only reasonably short muddy sections and not too much elevation change. The longer of the two Kett portages into Basswood Lake was re-routed around a bog/previous beaver pond a while back. Lots of sawed, downed trees here. This is the most visible work I've seen by a portage crew out of my four Quetico trips, and they did a really fantastic job.

On Basswood we saw our first group since Elk Lake after we rounded United States Point. We paddled fast to stay ahead of a storm brewing to the northwest which appeared to carry a lot of rain. Fortunately our 4 o'clock tow was waiting for us when we arrived to Washington/Lincoln Island right at 3 pm. Really nice guy from Kansas working for La Tourell's. We happily gave him a nice tip a the end of the tow in appreciation for getting there early knowing a storm was coming.

We had the pleasure of meeting Jeep La Tourell at his Moose Lake camp at the end of our tow. He was good to talk to and a really nice guy. Lots of boundary waters experience. We notified Jordan's Outfitters and they sent our shuttle out to pick us up. Mark and his wife were shuttling a bunch of boy scouts down to MSP, so they sent some friends to pick us up. The friends had just finished a two week trip coming from Atikokan all the way back to the southern end of Quetico. We really enjoyed talking with them and picking their brains on their favorite Quetico lakes.

All in all, it was another great trip to Quetico. It was too short, but I'm just thankful my wife was willing to pick up the slack at home with our 9 month old baby and allow me to continue my 8 year streak.

I was impressed at how rugged and little-traveled the area of Quetico we traveled through appeared to be. The portages mostly weren't very long, but they made up for that by being rocky and overgrown. Quetico really makes you earn the solitude, but once you get there it's a world class camping and fishing experience.

This was our first time using Mark and his wife at Jordan's (on the frequent recommendations of Fishguts). They made the logistics of the trip a breeze, and we'll definitely use them again in the future.

Thanks to all of you who've helped me plan my last 8 trips up here, and I hope this trip report is informative and somewhat enjoyable! I'll try to post pictures if I get a chance.