Wednesday, August 15, 2012 We started the day with our rain suits on which was a good idea since it started the sprinkle as we hit the water. We did start the day with blueberry pancakes, which helped our mood. We experienced light rain and calm winds from Aegean to Paull as we travelled down the Bird River. We had a tough time finding the 300m portage on the Bird River. This portage is actually located much closer to the rapids than depicted on the map and there was a tree down at the landing making the take-out difficult to see.  The waterfall on the 300m portage was impressive and we had to take pictures of Decoy on her favorite river in the park. While we paddled on the Bird River we saw two geese jump off of a cliff above our heads and fly away. We are still wondering what they were doing up so high! 

By the time we got to Paull, it was pouring and the wind had picked up considerably out of the south.  We decided to eat lunch at the far north campsite. We couldn’t bring the canoe around to the landing because of the wind, so we tied up on a steep rock ledge. This campsite was huge with several tent pads. We found three different fire rings as well. Most of the tent pads were very high and exposed to the wind, so we moved on in the rain. We made it to the next campsite, which is located on an island in the second set of narrows. It is a big site with two tent pads. We set up our rain tarp trying to block the cold wind and rain. The temperature had dropped considerably and was about 50 degrees. We hid under the tarp most of the night except when we heard a large animal crashing through the forest near our site while it made a grunting/buzzing sound. We figure it was a moose, but never saw it. The wind began switching, which made our tarp less effective and required additional rigging. We had a delicious Carbonara for supper and had a Camp Toddy to warm up before going to bed. The rain and wind continued all night. We did not see any people this day and did not fish at all this day.