Thursday, August 04, 2016 My second morning on Ensign was beautiful. I heard a shower on my tent the night before, but it was clear again. My breakfast was Mountain House Breakfast Skillet, and was it good. I toured the area and gathered some branches for firewood, and settled into "Firewall" for awhile. As I sat there reading, I was visited every 5 minutes by my chipmunk buddy, and I talked with him for the rest of my trip - he was very bashful but a good listener. At about 9 am I decided to do a short day trip to Perdu Lake, a very small lake to the west of the northwest bay I was targeting. I had never visited Perdu in all my previous 9 trips to Ensign, but I'd seen it on maps and occasionally seen canoes with trippers stopping and getting out, so I had a pretty good idea where the portage might be. The portage is not marked on maps, so it was an adventure for me. It was an easy paddle over to where I thought the portage was, and I got out of my canoe. Up a short but extremely steep rise to a path, so I knew I was on the right track. After less than a minute of walking, I could see a very small but very pretty lake. When I got up close, I realized why Perdu Lake isn't visited by many - the bog. I got close and took a few steps, almost losing my shoes. The bog also had a smell that wasn't pleasing to say the least. A short walk back to my canoe, where I rinsed the foul odor out of my socks, shoes, and feet. When I took off my socks, I noticed some bloody spots, and then ...... yes ..... leaches! There were 5 of those blood-suckers between my toes. Yuck! Got back in for some fun paddling and fishing and caught a few small smallies and a small pike. While fishing i ate a couple small pouches of Almond Butter and squeeze strawberry jelly. I then stopped on a shallow gravel point to bathe with Mr B's all-natural soap that I've been using for many years. No cleaning fish today - Mountain House Beef Stroganoff would be my dinner. A short but hard shower came up fast and soaked me pretty good - went back to camp, put on some dry clothes, boiled my water for dinner, and started a campfire. Once again it cooled off quickly. My campfire was very nice - I felt dry when I hit the tent for another cool night of sleep, once again serenaded by those loons that must have been waiting for me to close my eyes..