Wednesday, October 11, 2017 Apparently caught up on our sleep, we were awake well before dawn. The grouse was still drumming. It was clear and cold, and the tips of pine branches glowed with frost in the light of our headlamps. We rekindled the fire, lit the stove, and began packing up. We were enjoying our second cups of coffee and tea as the sun rose, and 30 minutes after that we were on the water, with wind building from the southeast.

As we traveled back toward Snowbank the lakes remained empty except for a couples of distant eagles, an occasional raven, and a few last ducks in the marshy areas. As we paddled down the handle of Hatchet we heard the flat report of a shotgun somewhere to the south -- a hunter, perhaps after grouse or ducks.

Our plan had been to get only to Ima. But when we stopped there at a south-facing island campsite, we realized we were enjoying the rhythm of paddle and portage on this day. We resumed our journey toward the entry point and it was not until we were near the end of the portage from Disappointment to Snowbank that we suddenly felt physically spent. We had a snack, drank some water, and braced ourselves for a windy paddle back to the landing, which we reached about 4 p.m.

This was not the trip we had envisioned when we left home, but we agreed it had been enjoyable, with satisfying measures of hard work and relaxation. We had sought quiet, and we had found it, seeing only one group on Day 1, and another outbound on Disappointment on Day 3. We treated ourselves to dinner, spent the night at Ely's Adventure Inn, and the next morning headed east on Minnesota 1 toward the north shore, where we walked the Superior Hiking Trail for a couple of days.