We woke up to cloudy skies again, temps were right around 40 F, and there was a slight breeze out of the east as we tumbled out of our tents shortly before sunrise. With a chance of rain today, we all were in agreement to try to eat breakfast/pack up as soon as we could. For breakfast, we had some leftover bacon, sausages, summer sausage, and had instant oatmeal to fuel us for the paddle back to our vehicles. After inhaling our food, we began to disassemble camp. I rolled up sleeping bags and got my clothes all stuffed away. I took down our tent and Dad helped me pack it away. Dad got all the cooking stuff and whatever food we had left in its rightful place. Ben, Chris, and Jacob got their tent and bags packed up. Jeff tried his hand at fishing one last time with no luck. I also took some time to clean up camp a bit as there were scraps of firewood littered everywhere. Whoever came here next didn't have to worry about getting wood for a few nights anyway!

It's always sort of a jigsaw puzzle before you shove off shore because you're trying to get all packs to fit correctly in the canoes, and so they aren't too heavy/light. It took about 15 minutes of moving stuff around before it all sort of fit together. I took one final walk around the camp...pondering to myself how much of a pleasure the past three days had been for me. Sometimes in life, you want more money, more things, more success at your job, etc. The only thing I wanted now was more time to spend here. Until that time becomes readily available again, I said so long to our Horse Lake site, and we shoved off of shore.

We paddled our way into a southwesterly direction to the first of our seven portages. As we paddled away from camp, a slight wind picked up from the east again, and the paddle to the first portage was simple. The cloudy skies made the entire day seem sort of eerielike something ominous was about to happen. Being here this time of year taught me real quick that you have to pay closer attention to what youre doing...with few people around you, I realized that help would be a ways away in an event of a capsize, broken limb, etc. Personally, I enjoy cloudy days than sunny days. I'm fair skinned so a break from the sun is always welcomed. I just hoped that the rain would stay away. Paddling across Horse Lake was somber....it is a beautiful lakeand we had it to ourselves. From what I've read, this lake is a busy place in the summer months, so it was nice to be here when human activity was rather limited.

We arrived at the somewhat hidden portage landing tucked back into the south west corner of Horse, on the right side of the bay. It was an 80-rodder. During high water times, the portage can be shortened about 20 rods.I made the mistake of going to the shortened landing, but after I arrived there, I looked to see a impenetrable dam to my right, so I trudged my packs back to the trail and continued to the actual landing. The portage itself was easy, and very scenic as the creek was rumbling off in the distance. On that particular portage, I thought/wondered to myself how people in the past survived up here? How did they prepare themselves for winter? What would it be like to camp up here in the winter? I will find that out sometime before I die!!

We hopped into the canoes for a short paddle as the Horse/Fourtown Lakes meet to create this sort of creek/swamp area. We noticed all of the stumps from the logging days, as the shallow water made it easier to see them. We arrived to a short but steep 10 rod portage. The creek was full of huge old logs, a mixture of fallen trees and timber. Tricky landing area on the eastside of the portage that was rocky/mucky. It was pretty much a straight shot up, and then down to the other side. A few hundred feet beyond this portage were a bunch of exposed rocks with very minor rapids. We had to exit the canoes, walking on rocks, guiding/lifting the canoes through the rocks for about 100 feet to the other side. I worked up a healthy sweat!

After paddling for a half mile, we had another 10 rod portage through a campsite that sat on the extreme mid-eastern side of Fourtown. It was probably the least sheltered/private campsite I've ever seen in the BWCA, but you had a nice view into Fourtown and back to the bay to the east where we just came from. Also, a creek with mild rapids runs right through the site. I could see kids playing/swimming here for hours on a warm/sunny day. We took a bathroom break, and scouted the campsite out. In the woods along the shore, I discovered the skeleton of a freshly eaten animal. There were no teeth left, but I'm guessing it was either a wolf or a fox...all that was left were the skull, part of its backbone, and its ribs scattered all over the ground--an interesting site to say the least.

Up to this point, the day had gone fairly well, but it was about to take a nosedive. We paddled to the northwest out of the little bay. Just beyond the site we portaged through was a gorgeous campsite with huge pines on the right....as we paddled past it, you could see the site up on the hill--all the room underneath the red pines and nice view of the lake with tenting spots! It made me want to stop then and there to camp there and call in sick to school a couple days!!! But, I knew that wasn't right, so we kept paddling. A light drizzle began to fall on us now as we continued. Fourtown was a healthy-sized lake, and we were coming into the big/middle portion of it. With the drizzle making distant visibility a challenge, long story-short, I ended up misreading our map/location. Instead of taking a sharp left to the south to head to Mudro, we ended up paddling to the far west side of the lake, between the two large/one small island. After paddling around for awhile in the bay, my dad and I looked at the map again, and realized we needed to go back. We believed we were near the portage into Boot Lake but we never found that either. The wind picked up a bit from the eastno white caps, but enough to make it a little dicey.

We faced the east and decided to hug the shoreline to our right (south). We made the turn and then headed south toward Mudro. When we made the turn southward, we saw a canoe with a young couple far across the lake heading north. It didn't appear that their canoe had much gear in it. We wondered if they were just making a day trip, or if something had happened. The canoe was in no hurry to get our attention, so we just paddled on. This little getting lost ordeal wasted about two hours of our day, and now with the drizzle turning to light rain, we decided not to investigate the three lower sites on Fourtown with the old truck. I was bummed, but the rest of the group was anxious to leave the poor weather behind, and it was my fault getting us lost, so we continued to the three portages into Mudro.

I'd read so much about these three portages, and all of the sudden I became a little nervous. The rain at least died down to more of a fine mist, but things were wet enough to make things less than ideal. We didn't get our rain gear out because we were in the middle of the lake and the rain sort of kept us cool from the paddling. Getting from the bigger waters of Fourtown to the little channel at the extreme southern part of the lake was a relief. There was virtually no wind in the boggy creek-like area. The first portage was a 10-rodder. The landing on the north side on the east side of the creek was atrocious! It was a jagged rock shelf that literally went straight up! It was as rugged as I had envisioned! Getting up it, however, was only half the battle. The portage trail was extremely rocky, rooty, and wet (from the precip). We double tripped it, and loaded up the canoes.

We paddled for less than five minutes to the 141 rodder, with the north landing on the west side of the creek. This portage was a beast, but it was breathtaking! It went up/down/left/right/and everywhere in between. The canoe carriers did not double trip it, but the rest of us double tripped, deciding to not kill ourselves. The trail goes dangerously close to some very high bluffs overlooking the creek filled with rocks/fallen trees! One wrong step would result in certain death!! Some of the bluffs had to be at least 200-300 feet high. It was the most scenic portage I think I can ever remember. There were some areas of flat rock that was inclined enough to make it real slickhad a close call, but didnt fall. It was a relief when we were done with this beast! I was sweating like crazy! I strongly considered jumping into the creek here for a quick swim, but I chickened out. I regret not doing it...it would've been fun! We took a lunch break at the end of the portage, looking back to the north where the creeks rapids began. We munched on PB/J sandwiches, jerky, trail mix, licorice, Pringles, and Kool-Aid.

Following a nice 45 minute break, we paddled for a ¼ mile to the 30-rodder that connects to the northern side of Mudro. From what I'd read, this portage was the easiest of the three. There was no real elevation change to speak of, but the last 10 rods on the southern part of the portage was very rocky and hard to walk because rocks were jutting out everywhere. A large dam (which sort of looked man madeas did many other dams we saw today) was at the southern end of the portage. The view to the south was excellent, as you could view Mudro Lake in the distance. We climbed back into our canoes, knowing that the last portage of the day would be to our vehicles. Jeff and I, who were in the front of the pack for most of the trip, brought up the rearI wanted to savor as much as a could before we left. We paddled past the lone campsite on Mudro. I still wondered to myself how much that site actually gets used! I will camp there someday just to say I did it!!

Eventually, we made our way to Picket Creek with skies still overcast, little to no wind, and an ever-persisting mist continuing to make its presence. Temperatures didn't really warm up throughout the dayhovering in the mid-40s. The creek, not covered in snowfall as it was three days before, was about as quiet as a tomb. After breaking through the beginnings of a quaint beaver dam, we quietly paddled our way up the creek to the shallow, sandy landing of the 30-rodder to the parking lot. As we hit shore, I wished the Chainsaw Sisters Saloon was still in business. It would've been cool to have a cold one (or in my case a warm one) before heading home.

It was very bittersweet for me...this portage meant the end of the wilderness part of our trip, the part that I so had looked forward to and enjoyed the entire time. It meant an end for another trip and I knew it would likely be until 2011 until my next canoeing venture. However, I was looking forward to getting home to see my wife and one-year-old son, and out of the mist/cold. We all agreed as we landed on shore that it was a successful trip....an adventure we were all proud to be apart of. We gathered the gear and made our way down the little trail to the Mudro parking lot. Our vehicles were still the only ones in the lot. Before we left, my family posed for a photo in the parking lot as Jeff kindly took it.

As we left the Mudro access, it began to rainand it rained all the way back to Hawley. It probably was a good idea that we didnt visit the truck site on Fourtown. On the way home, we stopped and ate at McDonalds in Hibbing, and listened to the Packers-Vikings game which was the Sunday Night Game. At that time, there was still hope for the Vikes in the 2010 season, but, we all knew how that turned out. I arrived at my house at around 10:30 PM that night, ready to sleep, but wondering what returning to my day job as 3rd grade teacher would be and all of the things I'd have to do tomorrow....I quickly forgot about it as I fell asleep with memories of our trip in my head.