Summary

The trip is over, and life has returned to normal. Sort of.

The last day of the trip, I was awake and had my gear packed and ready to go by 4:30 AM. We loaded the canoes and shoved off by 6:30, and by 7:30 had crossed the only portage of the trip. That's when things turned ugly. The next mile or so of the paddle, we were able to stay behind islands for shelter from the wind, but we then had to make an open-water crossing. Didn't start off bad, but while we were exposed, the wind kicked up. Was throwing 3-4' waves at us, and completely removed any ability we had to steer. Oh, we could turn, but it took the collective effort of all three of us in the canoe, and as soon as we tried to go forward again, the wind turned us broadside to the waves. We took on water several times, and decided to go with 'any port in a storm' and seek shelter from the wind & waves on the back side of a small island a short distance ahead of us. We were about 50 feet away from the sheltered water when the biggest wave I had seen all day hit us broadside and capsized the canoe. At this point, we learned that John can't swim, so I threw all the gear I could catch into the canoe and swam that to shore while Mike grabbed John and swam him in. Luckily, all souls survived, but gear losses between Mike and myself easily eclipsed $1,000. I'm filing my insurance claim tomorrow.

The drive home was relatively uneventful; stopped in Grand Marais at Sven & Ole's Pizza - have never seen 3 large pizzas dissapear that quickly. It was good, but it certainly wasn't worth what we paid for it--almost $20 for a large! Stopped again in Duluth, where John and I switched places and I drove 6 hours non-stop to Clear Lake, IA. Ended up rolling into my driveway at 1:30 AM.