It started raining early this morning. It was a light, steady rain. Based upon the cloud cover, it did not look like it was going to end very soon.

This was our exit day, we did not need to be in a hurry, but we had to leave. Plus, we were really looking forward to showers and fresh cooked foods. We had a breakfast of granola cereal and got packed up. Most things were wet, but we were not as careful keeping the wet stuff separate while packing since we would not need the gear again this trip. We were on the water by nine.

We paddled south on Kelso and took the Kelso River over to Sawbill. By this time, we were soaked from the rain. At the end of the portage to Sawbill, we saw our first signs of people in four days. The campsite across from the portage had a canoe in it.

We had a bit of a headwind as we paddled through the bay toward the main part of Sawbill. Once on Sawbill, the wind was from the east. The water was not rough, but we kept close to the western shore. I did not want to cross the lake in the wind until the lake narrowed south of where we were.

As we paddled south, we saw a group come from a portage to the fire chain lakes. We later learned they were from Oklahoma, and this was their first trip to the Boundary Waters. They base camped and fished for the week.

As we approached the dock at Sawbill, there were two groups coming off the lake and another two canoes heading out toward Alton. We arrived at the dock around noon, unloaded, returned the canoe and pack to the outfitters, retrieved my keys, and put all the wet gear in the trunk of my car. We got our clean clothes and went to the showers. We felt like new people once we were clean.

The paddle out was about 4 miles.

I used the outfitters wi-fi to check in at home. That is when I noticed a missed call and voice message from the day before from my uncle that has been fighting a long battle with cancer. My heart sank a little when I saw it, thinking the worst. When we finally got back to cell service and realized the message was from him, we felt a little better.

We stopped in a little pizza and sandwich shop west of Tofte and had our first non-dehydrated meal in days. It was very good. We started the drive south and were at the Lismore Hotel in Eau Clair before dinner. We had a few drinks at the rooftop bar, went to the restaurant in the hotel for a good dinner, and were back in the room for the night.