Monday, July 16, 2007 We’re leaving today so we get up at 5:45AM and we’re on the water fishing by 6:15AM. We troll shad raps to start. I catch two pike and Jamie catches one. We return to camp at about 8AM. Jamie makes breakfast of french toast, hash browns and coffee, while I start to break down camp and pack. I have the tent down and packed, the sleeping bags and pads rolled and packed and most of personal gear packed when breakfast is ready. We eat and Jamie cleans dishes while I continue packing. A knot on our bear rope gets wedged between a small branch and won’t come free. Jamie wants to climb up and get it, but the main branch is at least 15 feet up and I don’t think it’s a good idea. Eventually, we each grab an end and pull away from the branch and it comes free. We’re almost fully packed when a couple pull up and politely ask if we are leaving. We tell them we’ll be on our way in about 15 minutes. They thank us and say they’ll wait in the bay around the point, which I thought was very nice. We waived to them as we left and they paddled to our now vacated site. We fish on our way to the portage out of Ensign and I hook something large. After a struggle to get it near the canoe, I see the fluorescent tie that I had used when we were fishing slip bobbers. The fish is within about 8 feet of the canoe. It turns and makes a run and I come with an empty line, lure and all is gone. I believe the line was cut on a gill plate, because we were in twenty feet of water and the line was cut clean. I wasn’t using a leader, so if it was a northern, it could have been a bite off. I sure wish I could have seen it anyway. We made it to our first portage at noon. We decided to fish a bit since our tow wasn’t until 2PM. The sun was beating down pretty good and it was getting hot. We fished for a half hour and decided to head to the portage. We saw a group enter Ensign and stop for lunch immediately after the portage. 5 canoes and 10 people, they’re illegal! Two people in the group are speaking German and someone is translating to the other people. As they get out of their canoes, one of the German guys falls in the lake. We had a good laugh. We negotiated the last portage and arrived at our pick up area by 1:15PM. We were definitely having mixed emotions as we waited for the tow boat. It will be nice to head home, but we are not ready to leave. The tow boat arrives at 2PM and we are in the VNO van and headed back to their place by 2:30PM. The cooler in the van had cold soda and beer. Jamie and I each choose a cold beer, which goes down very easy. We empty our personal pack into the car, grab the bags with our fresh clothes and head for the showers. Jamie was having a craving for Pizza and VNO recommended Wise Guys. Their pizza was very good. After eating we shopped for souvenirs for everyone back home and then got on the road at about 5:30PM. Jamie is prone to car sickness and after being on the water for 5 days, she had a rough time with the drive. We made about 3 hours when I needed to pull over. She left the pizza on the side of the road and we continued on our way. Within 15 minutes she was feeling sick again, so we found a hotel in Spooner, Wi. and got a room for the night. We would get up early, have breakfast, and drive the final 5 hours the next day.

Next year’s trip will be in September. We have already started to talk about our trip options.