Monday, June 17, 2019 Woke up before sunrise as my neighbors were making the worst racket I have ever heard. Took about 100 pictures of the trumpeters before they had enough, then made breakfast. Thought about just hanging out all day and reading under the tarp until I started wondering what was I doing out here! It had been raining off and on and I expected more rain from the forecast. Couldn’t talk myself out of leaving, so I broke camp and was on the water by 11:45am. As I was leaving, some painted turtles slid down the rocks, one landing on his back in a crevice. After rescuing him, I was in the canoe heading across the lake for the 37 rod portage into Upper Pauness. I enjoyed the carry across and when I got on the water, I decided to check out campsite 38, and would be rewarded by a turtle sunning and a branch above the water (Karma for helping the turtle earlier?). As you are paddling toward the campsite, you see the rocks and elevated kitchen, but the best landing is to the left around the corner with a shallow sandy landing. After taking many pictures of the painted turtle, I worked my way back to the EP. It is funny how long the paddle was, I am guessing time goes slower when you leave the BWCA. Funny story from the way in, I met some boy scouts working their way out and I just said “The worst part about the BWCA is leaving!” The kid looked me square in the eye and said “That’s the best part” – I guess to each their own. Even though I didn’t want to stay any longer, I was still sad to leave. I guess I found what I wanted for that trip, and the best lesson was that you need to be ready to take the trip before you go. If you are thinking about what you should be doing instead of being where you are, you need a better mindset, or you need to take care of those things before going! Being it was midafternoon, I was surprised to see two groups still working their way in, but that was all I saw until I got back to the EP. After loading up, I stopped at the Fire & Ice trail, thinking it would be much longer than it was. It also appears that the fire part has healed enough that it is hard to tell how bad it was. Headed back to Jeanette Lake campground and found the site next to the one I had stayed on was open. This was a nice site with access to the top of the rock ledge and a nice overview of the lake Jeanette. After setting up my tent, I decided to see if End of the Trail restaurant had any food left! They did, ate the mushroom ‘n Swiss with Fries and a HF Sundae! Back to Jeanette campground and my neighbors were out and they were louder than the trumpeter’s. They were talking about the wilderness is “serious business”. You forget something and you could die, like matches. This was two guys waiting for their wives to get up here. I’m not sure where they were going, but I was guessing they were not going light! Fell asleep listening to rantings & musings of drunk people!