17 August 2017, Thursday
It rained. Hard. All night long. In the gray morning light we wake to a soggy campsite, but inside our Big Agnes tent we are (temporarily) dry. O dresses first and dons his rain suit. He dives out of the tent and under the tarp. I stay behind to pack up the contents of the tent. It is an excellent morning for hot oatmeal and left over fudge brownie beneath the tarp as we watch sheets of rain falling out on Lower Pauness. I mention to O that the floor of our tent felt as if it were set up over a water balloon. I am very impressed that the inside stayed dry.
We finish breakfast, do the dishes and pack up everything we can beneath the tarp. Next, we quickly pack our duffle bags and sleeping system in the yellow dry bag. Now we can move our soggy tent beneath the tarp. The fly and footprint are soaked, but we keep the inside of the tent, itself, semi-dry. I’m glad we will be sleeping back at Canoe on Inn tonight. After the tent is packed we take down the tarp. Everything is carried down to lake’s edge. The water level is up considerably. The baby eagle is squawking in the nest by the take out and the parent eagle is there as well, but it is raining too hard for photos. We believe it to be a golden eagle (but are later informed that golden eagles do not nest in Minnesota.) We do the 40 rod portage to Pauness quickly, splashing through deep puddles.
Out on Pauness, we have difficulty finding the river channel amidst the wide expanse of river grass. We finally just power through the grass from river’s edge until we find the open channel. Sooner than expected we reach the 65 rod “root beer falls” portage and meet the two large fishermen again. They are also on the way out. We arrive back at entry site #14 by 12:45. We try to get a bit of organizing done. Tom, from Piragis, shows up for our 2:00 shuttle at 1:15. He figured we’d be coming out early today after all that rain. Tom asks us to stop by Piragis where Steve has some information for us about the smaller Pak canoe.
O and I drive back to Ely and check in once again at Canoe on Inn. We unpack as much soggy gear as we can into our room and turn up the heat in an effort to dry things out a bit. I organize two large bags of laundry then we both take nice hot showers. We head to Insula for dinner, stopping first at Piragis where Steve tells us the thwart on the smaller 15T Pak boat is only 21 inches away from the portage yoke. O could easily reach that, but we are considering whether we really need a pak canoe or whether we should rent when necessary. Steve, an avid birder, also tells us there are no nesting golden eagles in Minnesota. Also, golden eagles usually nest on cliffs, not in trees. Steve thinks we probably saw a 3-4 year old bald eagle who is old enough to mate but does not yet have classic adult coloring.
Dinner at Insula is delicious once again and laundry is underway. We hope to get up early enough tomorrow to repack Vincent, breakfast at Chocolate Moose and head to Bismarck, ND.
Total Portages for the trip: 23, not counting the approximately half km carry from the parking lot to the river and out again.
Total Trip length: 68 km, but longer or us since we walk the portage trails three times for our double carries.