Day 0 - Saturday (9/31, 2019) We arrived in Ely around 7:30 am, reasonably rested. We drove through the town and found Piragis, an outfitter and well-stocked outdoors store. Mikey and I go into the store to see what's up and I pick up a pair of zip-off pants that I'm pleased that I purchased. I left my normal pair of adventure pants in the Jeep during the trip. We get a suggestion for breakfast, and we go have it.

Since we have some time until the other group shows up, we decide to drive to Williams & Hall to check it out. We do that and check-in, and all is set up nicely. We confirm times for everything, and we also see if there is an earlier pick-up time for our tow back from Prairie Portage. There is, as of now, so I make a note to speak to the group about it. Mikey and I mess about and drive down some side roads to see lake access points.

I get a call from my BIL (driver of the other vehicle) and says that JS received a text from the group that was still on the water and that there was a problem with the yokes. This was the only text, and not more were received. I'm not sure how the text was sent from inside Quetico, but it was, and I'm sure it was by luck.

Since I was already in Ely, I went back to Piragis to see if they had yokes and equipment to cut them to length and drill the holes. They had blanks and installers, but without knowing when the group would arrive or when the canoes could get to them, there could be no appointment set. Piragis was more than accommodating and were ready to do what was necessary.

The other group arrived, and I took them to Piragis to see what I had found. Since we didn't know what the actual issue was all that could be done is theorize and put things in motion. While at Piragis the on the water group got back to the outfitters and called JS. The yokes were starting to dry-rot (I assume) and one had cracked a bit. They shored it up on the water with paracord. JS decided to go with what they had done and use the boat as-is. This would prove to be a mistake. We ate lunch at a very nifty BBQ food truck in front of a grocery store, and we all headed to Williams & Hall to settle in, re-pack if necessary, and generally start to enjoy the trip.

At this point in the story, some were already stressed a bit. The drive, trying to get information from JS, the unknown of the canoe, etc. led to some being a bit cranky.