I woke around 5am and packed up my hammock in the dark, made a quick cup of coffee and began paddling around civil dawn. I made it to the parking lot around 730 and packed the truck. while driving down Grassy Lake Rd. I noticed a large animal walking towards me. I stopped the truck in disbelief of what I was seeing, realizing my first wolf sighting in the wild. I tried to get a picture, but that joker jumped into the wood line to quickly. I walked to where he went in but could not see him any longer, I'm confident he was still there watching me though.

I made it back to Ely, stopping only at the Circle K to gas up when an elderly man in a Toyota Corolla loaded with fishing gear pulled up behind me. He acknowledged the large USMC Eagle Globe and Anchor decal on my back window. He was friendly and conversational talking about how he writes stories about military veteran's experiences. He asked me about my family, talked about the Vice Presidential debatebthat occurred while I was out and we had a few chuckles about it.

Part of me just wanted to get on the road to get home and I feared I was about to be invited over to his home for coffee. 20 minutes later (and I still had not pumped a drop of gas) he says to me, you got to take some fish home to those kids of yours. (He did not know I told my children I would try to bring some home. Nor did he know that I was unable to catch anything due to the wind.) I thought he was going to give me some of his extra pan fish (which I would have still been thankful for). He opens his trunk and gives me three cleaned Rainbow Trout!

We exchange a few departing words before I fill my tank and leave for home. Never before had I ever thought about Hebrews 13:2, Do not forget to show hospitality to strangers, for by so doing some people have shown hospitality to angels without knowing it. If Carl is not an angel, Ely has a sweet man as an ambassador to those of us who are just visitors to Ely. If your out there, thank you again Carl!