Sunday, August 07, 2022 A restful night brought us to the dawn of a beautiful morning. Not much tastes better than campsite coffee in the morning especially when you can have it with a breakfast of bacon and eggs. My group of newbies was thinking, "Not bad at all!".

Fish was on the menu for supper so Jakob and I decided to check out the nearby channels for anything that would be willing to join us for our meal. Matt had brought along his fly rod so he was going to try his luck from shore. Ashley, Alicia and Debbie were content to just soak in the wilderness and the good company with maybe a few pages here and there from the books they had brought along. As Jakob and I worked the islands and channels that extended from our campsite we saw lots of structure that looked very promising. Unfortunately the fish that just HAD to be there were not tempted by what we were offering so after a few hours all we had for action was one strike that I did not get to the canoe and Jakob getting bit off once--probably from a northern when he was fishing for bass. We decided to take a break and return to camp. When we got there, we learned that Matt did not experience any more luck than we'd had. I also learned that one should really inform your fellow campers more thoroughly of your plans than just, "We're going fishing". Ashley raised a good point in that as folks who were new to this BWCA thing, they were kinda counting on me for guidance throughout the trip and my vanishing act without much idea of where to, or for how long, was maybe a bit unsettling. She was absolutely correct. That's the value of bringing new people into the wilderness: it is all seen with a different set of eyes and it amazes me that after all of the many times I've been to the BWCA, how much and how often I learn from first-timers that makes me a better wilderness camper.

It was now about lunch time and just as we were breaking out something to eat, a few raindrops fell. Once again this group clicked like an experienced crew and we had a sturdy tarp up in no time. The rain never increased beyond a few sprinkles here and there but the temperature did drop a few degrees so more hot coffee was in order. At one point Jakob and I decided to go out again for fish (this time with a more specific itinerary left with the others) but our luck was not any better than earlier. After we each got just a bit chilled by the cooler temps we returned to camp to start on supper, which was now going to be our freeze-dried beef stroganoff we had packed as a back-up meal. Debbie pronounced this dish to be rather tasty and combined with some Camp Chow cauliflower in cheese sauce we didn't miss eating fish (ok, maybe we did at least a little bit). Despite not catching anything, this beautiful campsite, camaraderie around an evening campfire and a stunning deep-red sky as darkness came, made our layover day another successful segment of this BWCA adventure.