We get up Friday morning and eat a ton of pancakes and coffee and plan our departure. We break camp and are on the water around 9. We decide the morning is too nice to rush so we take our time and check out some campsites on Horseshoe and Caribou and fish along the way. The smallmouth were surface feeding on the south side of the eastern point on Caribou and I manage a single strike on a jig—nothing else comes of it. The portage back into Lizz is busy and we wait for a family coming in for what appears to be their first BWCA experience. The dad makes it well known that the two aluminum boats aren’t light. The portage into Lizz is really wet, but we manage just fine and slowly paddle down Lizz. Determined to make it across Poplar and back to Rockwood without getting lost we pay close attention to the islands and how we navigate them. Without issue we get to Rockwood and thus conclude our 4th or 5th (I can’t remember how many it has been) annual BWCA trip.

All in all a great trip. We ditched on an island, unexpectedly. We had really poor and really phenomenal weather in the same trip. Fishing could have been better, but there were no injuries and lots of fun was had.

We ended with a night out at the Hungry Jack Lodge and Saturday morning breakfast at the Trail Center with the bread pudding French toast. Also saw another momma moose and calves crossing the Gunflint.