​Last day “on” Isle Royale.

Was up at 6am (ET), got my sleeping gear in my pack and pulled out some snacks for the day long boat ride back to Grand Portage.  Hauled my pack down to the docks and headed over to the restaurant at 7 and had a nice relaxing breakfast with fresh brewed coffee – much better than the freeze dried variety!

After breakfast I wandered back to my shelter to double check that I hadn’t left anything and then finally back to the dock a little after 8 ET so 7 am CT.  I was plenty early – not gonna be “That guy” again.  We started loading onto the boat around 7:30 and were under way at 8 am CT sharp.  There were two or three stops along the trip back to Windigo at the other end of the island where I had started my hike.  These stops were to pick updrop off people at these various locations.  We pulled into Windigo around 12:30.  There was a thirty minute stop for loadingunloading and then we were underway at 1 o’clock.  Two more hours to Grand Portage.  The day was cool and cloudy so I sat inside the entire trip, tried to get some sleep but the waves made for a bumpy ride the whole day.  Docked in Grand Portage about 3 pm.

After waiting for my pack to be offloaded, then getting stuff situated in the car and paying for parking, I was on the road at about 4 o’clock.  Uneventful drive home, stopped in Cloquet for a quick bite and to stretch my legs around 7 o’clock.  After a final couple of hours I pulled into my garage around 9:30 Sunday night.  After 6 days on the trail, the day was a good rest for my feet, hips, shoulders and back.  But man, oh man, after 13 hours sitting in the boat and car now my butt hurts!

Glad I planned to take Monday off, I’ll need it to recuperate and get all my gear cleaned up.

What a wonderful trip!