Exit Day! It was a cold morning. The gear we left out had some frost. R stayed warm curled down in her sleeping bag. I survived, a little cold. It was hard to get moving that morning, but we were up around 6am, and having hot apple cider by 6:30 or so. Another beautiful sunrise. 

We had camp broken down and were on the water before 8:30 – we had gotten good at this. I packed as much weight from R’s packs into the blue barrel as I could. We rigged up our rods and decided to troll our way to the mile lone portage out. The western island site appeared empty, which was a surprise to me. The eastern island was occupied. No fish were caught, but we got plenty of snags. No lures lost though! 

Soon enough, we were at the Meeds/Poplar portage. The plan was to leap frog with our gear in about 1/3 mile increments, resting during the stroll back to our prior drop off point and munching on Cliff bars and the last of the jerky and dried fruit. We also made sure to leave water with each set of dropped gear. This portage’s hills were a little more vertical than I was anticipating, but they really weren’t too bad. There were a couple spots, either due to hills or boulder fields, where I had to carry R’s packs, but she was able to carry her loads over 90% of the time. She liked the several boardwalks. Some of them had to have been recently repaired, as they still had the tags stapled to the end of the boards.  We completed this challenge in 2 hours. 1 group of 2 or 3 canoes was starting their trek as we were on the finishing end.  

A quick paddle across Poplar, and we were landing at the Poplar Haus and waiting for our shuttle back to Tuscarora. The menu at the Poplar Haus looked incredible, especially after 6 days in the woods, and that Meeds portage. We got the fried chicken sandwich – AMAZING! We chatted with the new owner of Poplar Haus, really nice guy. His staff was friendly too. 

Back at Tuscarora, we enjoyed their new shower house and were on our way back down the Gunflint by 3pm. The original plan was to camp north of Grand Marais for the night and meet up with a friend from Duluth to fish the pink salmon run along the Superior shoreline. We did check out the Brule River, and didn’t see any live pinks, but did chat briefly with a fly guide. Given the death of the family member earlier, the lack of pinks and the forecasted freezing temps that night, we decided it would be best to just go home. I drove through the night, arriving home at 3am to a sleepy wife and over-excited lab.  R immediately asks if we can do it again next year, but try hammock camping. Looks like I have to research new gear. ~Meeds Lake, Poplar Lake