It rained most of the night before, and was still raining pretty steadily until around 8 the next morning. Partly because we didn't want to get drenched, and partly because we were procrastinating on leaving, we stayed in our tent until the rain stopped completely, around 9.

We ate the same breakfast we'd eaten the entire trip, not yet sick of it, and broke camp, checking thoroughly for any traces of our presence before leaving. Then, we got on the water and began the trip back to Rockwood.

It was a beautiful morning, and the trip went by quickly. We stayed quiet, paddling very close to shore, on Caribou and Horseshoe in hopes of seeing a moose. We didn't have the fortune of seeing one, but hope we'll have a chance to spot one in the future. The beauty of the BWCA was more than enough.

We stopped on Caribou for lunch, and finished off all of our cheese, crackers, and summer sausage. We stayed on that empty campsite for awhile, savoring every last moment we could. There were a lot of beautiful water lilies near the campsite landing, and we sat watching them float for a long time.

We finally agreed we had to get going, and got back into our canoe to find our portage into Lizz. We had become pretty efficient at getting across the portages at this point, and got everything across the 73 rod portage relatively quickly!

When we got onto Lizz, we were paddling noticeably slower, procrastinating as much as we possibly could knowing we had a nine hour drive ahead of us. Reaching the portage into Poplar, we took one last look at the BWCA, comforted by the fact that we knew we'd be back.

We got a little mixed up on Poplar, and ended up taking a longer way back to Rockwood, but we made it! Mike and Carl were there to help us unload, and then we happily made our way to the shower house to get cleaned up.

After showering, we said goodbye to the wonderful Rockwood staff, and headed out, promising to see them again soon!

We had dinner at Trail Center Lodge. It was the most incredible malt and hot beef sandwich I'd ever eaten, and now I find myself craving their food all the time! We picked up a couple jars of blueberry jam for our family, and hit the road for home.

Reality was waiting for us back in Iowa, as I was scheduled to have a minor operation to remove a benign tumor on my back...the very next morning (I'm aware I'm crazy), but little did we know we were heading back to our little Iowa town with more than just beautiful pictures and wonderful memories...

The world's newest BWCA enthusiast is due this spring.