Woke up to the beautiful Pine Lake shores despite sleet whipping across the lake.

Immediately upon waking I had asked Bre her thoughts about inviting our friend Molly who lives in the area (my friend who hiked Snowbank with me over Memorial Day Wnd) to join us for our final hike on Saturday? Bre thought it was a great idea, so I sent a message through my SPOT to see if Molly wanted to meet us at McFarland, and Molly replied right away with a resounding YES!!!!

We ate breakfast with the guys, and soon were on our way. We left camp just ahead of them with lots of snow falling on the trail, and no major vistas until John Lake as we were to exit the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. Everything was wet, the trail, and us.

Today was 8 miles of mostly ridgelines, and over-unders. Still on the pine needle bed, it was an enjoyable hike. After we stopped for lunch and got back on trail, our “tramily” (trail family/guy pack) was just ahead of us, and we ended up hiking all together for about an hour until they broke for lunch and we were back ahead of them.

Finally we came to the overlook at John Lake, and I realized my right foot was developing an awful blister on my right heel from the non-stop wetness and weather. Every step I took was painful, but I was determined to get to McFarland.

We arrived, got our tent set up and then a new, and worse/heavier wintery mix hit us like no other. I was so grateful all of those decisions we had made on trail over the past several days to get ahead of schedule, to land us in the tent, out of the elements. There was no debate, if not for those decisions, we would absolutely be hiking in this awful weather, risking hypothermia.

We laid in the tent and read on our phones, me, the latest issue of Runners World Magazine, and her a suspense novel. We had a bit of type 1 “fun” of rehashing the absurdity of hiking in mid-October during wintery mix, and crossing two beaver ponds on Wednesday! I exclaimed, “We’re mothers Bre… what were we thinking?!?!?” We yelled, and laughed, and snuggled in deep in our downy blankets.

The guys made it to camp and invited us to their campsite with a fire, but the elements kept us in our own tent/campsite save for a miracle break in the weather so we could eat dinner in MOSTLY semi-dry conditions.

Back in the tent once more, I read for a long time, and was once again so grateful to be done with the trip the next day, and to see our friend Molly whom I did the Snowbank trail with, and whom we both worked with once upon a time! Added bonus was that we could drop all of our heavy gear in her truck and basically day hike the last 12.4 miles!

Best sleep of the entire trip.