Tuesday, September 27, 2016 It was windy all night but seemed to let up a little bit this morning. We broke camp at daylight and headed to the Birch portage. It ended up not being too bad of a paddle. We made it to the Birch portage at 10:00 and had to wait 4 hours for the tow. We met a group from Rockford, Illinois. They had entered on Sunday when the weather started getting bad. They made it 50 yards into Birch lake and swamped their solo Prism. This prompted them to set up at the first site on Birch. They had a group of 4 with one of them being a small child. They were scheduled to stay until Friday but they hadn't been able to get a fire started so they were heading back. They had actually crossed paths with Luke S on Sunday as he was on his way out. I felt sorry for this group. They came from so far away and had high hopes. They talked about visiting Dorothy Molter's site and had excitement to get to Knife Lake. Mother nature and the BWCA takes no prisoners. I hope the Illinois group tries it again. I could have easily given up on my idea of Ottertrack and Knife Lake, but I never put that option on the table. I made it, and I am glad I did. It was an awesome trip with awesome friends and I can't wait to do it again!