Sunday, August 28, 2022 Exit day. MAN it dumped overnight! it seamed to deluge on and off throughout the night. It still was drizzling when we woke up but was tapering off. No problem, I was high and dry in my hammock. which worked awesomely the whole time. The crearing had tracks were the water coursed through. We had left eveything under the tarp so it was all dry. Luck had it that there were some tree roots that diverted the water away from the bags. We had just enough fuel to boil water for our dehydrated eggs and ONE cup of coffee. Next time I'm going to bring a twig stove for just such kind of emergency. We pack up our wet gear and head to the portage to Mudro. Guess what? yep right into a headwind. By now I'm ready for it but I'm sure I wasn't trimmed correctly. I wish the recent thread about trimming a solo had come up BEFORE this trip. Oh well, i just went on to chase that tandem down the lake. The drizzle continued on and off Two other canoes came from the west and the race was on! no not really. but I came in last anyway. That was another fortunate benifit on falling behind. In ten days we had forgotten the bad put in at the portage. The other canoes missed that one and found a worse one with minimal landing and a tree they had to climb over. They wised me up and told me to go back to the easy one. Not much more to say about the portage except it was wet and slippery this time. At least the packs were lighter. We ended the as we started in dreary humid weather on a glass smooth lake. We were 10 minutes early but so was the outfitter in the van. We loaded up and had the best beer in the world. You know, the one from the cooler as soon as you get to the parking lot

All in all, it was another awesome trip. I learned a lot more and had some different experiences. Last trip was an out and back to South Arm Knife with a tow up and down Moose. Very little portaging and lots of lazing around. No bugs and just one brief rain storm on the 2nd to last night. It was just a relaxing time for seven days. This time was about 20 miles of portaging, hard travel days and three days out of ten that had significant rain. Not to mention the swarms of mosquitos that were nonexistent on our first trip. We had too much gear and the triple portaging option is off the table for next years trip. Gonna pare down the gear starting with leaving the scuba mask home. Fishing was better than last time (I got skunked) but still room for improvement. Would I do a solo again? Absolutely! It was great being in my own canoe. I did every portage with it and two packs of gear. I know I can go out on my own if everybody cancels. Which I will instead of skipping a trip. I'm sure I'll do more of a postscript over the winter so I'm ready for the next trip. Heck, I'm ready for the next trip now! But I like the water to be liquid and sort of warm.