7.1 miles 1 portage (40 rods)

The morning is still gray and bleak, but no rain today. We are up at 5:45. I think it is a bit warmer this morning, and there is less wind. We have hash browns and the bacon bar to eat. I have to clean out the lunch bag as a critter (probably piney squirrel) has been in the orange pack and helped himself! This must have happened while the pack was tied in the tree. Amazing!

This is a well-used site, but pleasant. There is a lovely view of the islands in the lake.

Today will be a short day, just a paddle down Pipestone Bay. Neil let me use the Therma-Rest last night and my back feels a lot better today. [2100 note: we can’t remember what kind of pad I was sleeping on, but I got a Therma-Rest pad for myself the following Christmas.] The cold and damp has been making the mornings painful at first.

We are on the water at 8:19. We portage Pipestone Falls about 10:20. We camp at the second campsite, the southern campsite on Newton Lake. We can hear the falls slightly. The site is very messy and has lots of trash: beer cans, a Coleman fuel can, and someone has thrown the fire rocks all around. Neil makes things neat again and builds a great fireplace. There is a big meadow out back, but the mosquitoes are so bad we don’t explore it much.

The forest here is all birch and aspen. It makes for nice fires, but I still prefer the looks of the conifers. The water here in Pipestone is very brown and has lots of swimmy things. No question about boiling this stuff!

We make camp early, dry things out some, and relax. It is cloudy, but brighter than it has been.

[I was running out of film. Why did I take this boring photo?? This is the last photo of the trip. Puzzling!]

Later on we can bathe, (tricky with the canoes coming and going). [In 1985 we were still bathing with a bar of Ivory soap in the lake. Sorry. But we were. We know better now.]

We have a hot lunch today after the new fireplace is built. There are lots of canoes coming by here, and more than a few power boats, too.

There is a shower just as we are cooking supper. Ugh! Enough, already!

We stay up with the fire and watch a nice sunset, with lots of pink in the clouds. I am sorry I am out of film!

It is cool, and may (?) be clearing off in the west. In the night something walked over the top of the tent! The people at the other campsite fired guns, and that alarmed me.