A big storm blew in during the night. It was short lived, between 3:15 and 3:30 a.m., but very intense and scary. It sure seemed longer. There was lots of heavy rain, thunder and lightening. The wind sounded like a freight train but came from above. My tent bent nearly flat, but sprung back unharmed. I wonder if a tornado or in-line wind didn’t pass over the top of us. I stayed in my tent but was ready to leave with the first sound of a tree falling. None did.

I woke to sunshine, blue skies, and a few puffy, white clouds! However, it was very windy. Also, the wind direction had changed. It was now out of the south rather than the east.

We had a special breakfast this morning – blueberry pancakes. Jim also got another nickname – “Hamilton”, as in “Hamilton Beach Mixmaster” for his pancake batter mixing. Add Hamilton to his long list of nicknames – Cookie, Cover Girl, Froggy, Bow Weight, Jiminy Gin, Norwegian Disco, and others.

Today’s day trip was to visit Crystal and Spaulding Lakes. Jim and I have never been to either. It was a very windy day which added to the adventure. Fortunately we had no mishaps.

Crystal has two campsites. The first campsite is not vet good. It is very open and grassy, but completely on a slope. Two tent pads were created. They were fairly level and big enough for a two-man tent, but very rocky and collected water. Today the pads were very wet and muddy.

Likewise the fire grate area was not good. Again it was sloped, wet, and rocky; not a good place to spend time.

The second site was much better, maybe even good, not great, but good. The two tent pads were OK. The fire grate was much better than the first. However, the latrine is easily seen by the rest of the camp. If you want some privacy you might want to hang a tarp as a barrier there. Still if you want to camp on Crystal, this is the site to choose.

We portaged over to Spaulding Lake. I wanted to check out the site of the Captain Spaulding mine. The problem was I didn’t find out where it was before our trip. It was one of those things – I meant to, but somehow didn’t find the time. Still, I hoped we could spot a trail or something. The problem was that the wind had really picked up. Therefore we were only able to check out about ¾ of the south shore and ½ of the east. The wind just got to be too much. No sign, so we had to start back.

We made it back to camp about 5:00. Jim made chili and I made corn bread for supper. We were treated to a double rainbow.

The moon came out. The wind died about 8:00 and the water was still.

Bed at 10:30.