The next morning greeted us with weather very similar to what was experienced the previous day: cool, overcast and, right away in the morning, a stiff breeze coming off of the lake right into camp. At sunrise, the orange glow through a cloud-break on the eastern horizon hinted at some coming sunshine to at least warm things a bit but that soon disappeared as the sun rose up behind clouds that stayed put most of the day--keeping the view of clear skies tantalizingly off in the distance.

Since we had burned up all of our firewood the previous evening, I decided to hike back into the woods for awhile and look for a new supply. At one point I came into an elevated clearing that was a big rock face covered with moss. As I proceeded to the far edge of this clearing, all at once I felt my foot collapse under me, felt a sharp pain in my knee and I was falling!!!! WHAT???? When things stopped moving I found myself laying at an odd angle with the pull of gravity hanging my head about three feet from the edge of this rock face and my leg thigh-deep in a 6-inch wide crack in the rock. I realized that I had stepped just right (just wrong?) onto this moss-hidden rock fissure and gone down into it. In the process of the fall I had jammed my thumb a bit, my leg was rather scraped up and would later show a nasty bruise and the pain in my knee was significant. As I lay there I at first thought I was in a pretty bad predicament and considered yelling for help, hoping the other guys would hear me. Before doing that I started to slowly move and further assess the situation. I considered an attempt to extricate my leg from the fissure and stand up on my own. Fortunately, a rotten stump within reach was solid enough to give me some leverage to push away from the edge, pull my leg out and successfully stand. While my knee was very sore, I was able to put weight on it and nothing felt broken. Indeed, in review of what had transpired, I felt lucky that I hadn't snapped my leg. I limped back toward camp which was about 200 yards away. When I finally got there, I described to the guys, who were still in their tents, what had happened. The response was, "What's the punchline?" I assured that there was no "punchline" and that my knee was not good. The pain was enough that it was possible we would have to end the trip early. At that moment, however, I sure did not feel like going anywhere. I dosed up on some Ibuprofen and made a point to keep gingerly moving about so the knee would stay loose. The rest of the guys then got up and decided they better start on breakfast since this was now going to be a three-person project instead of a four-person.

After bacon and eggs were consumed, Dave and Kirby became intent on catching the night's supper. The stiff breeze was making for some significant chop so fishing from the canoe looked like it could be a bit bumpy but there were also a few protected bays that looked promising and they set out to give them a try. Paul did not have much interest in fishing so he stayed behind. This was actually kind of nice for me as it gave us a bit of time for some father-son chats and enabled me to have him wait on his slow-moving dad. I did manage to hobble over to a spot near shore that allowed me to try some fishing while seated but the wind blowing in made that less than ideal and unproductive. Dave and Kirby returned in the early afternoon after also having gone fish-less. The guys then set out to gather the firewood I had failed on earlier and came back with plenty so we decided to start the fire early in the day to ward off some of the chill. Tending the fire would also be a good way to fight off boredom since the fish had decided to not cooperate.

By late afternoon the wind had calmed somewhat and the sun was at least trying. With steady pills, my knee was now feeling well enough that I could, with enough effort, get in and out of a canoe. David and I decided to take this opportunity to again try for some fish. We checked out a couple of nearby finger bays and I was able to boat a smallie of about 14"-15". David had a small northern on the line briefly but other than a few more nibbles that was about it. We released the bass and paddled back to camp informing the other guys that we'd be eating our freeze dried food that evening rather than the preferred fish fillets. Actually the beef stew and sweet/sour pork from Mountain House wasn't half bad, though we often joke about hunger being the best sauce and that freeze-dried stuff always tasting better in the woods than it would at home.

Once we were all cleaned up from supper (thanks, guys for again doing my part too!) we spent the rest of the night sharing more stories around a now-crackling fire. Between the drugs and the bourbon in my flask, I was able to mitigate knee soreness enough to enjoy the still evening with everyone else and joined them in admiring the beautiful moon that watched over us as we ended another day of our adventure.

Though my knee did make it "interesting" to get into the tent, out of my dirty clothes and into a sleeping bag, I was able to catch some pretty good Z's after what had been for me a rather trying and exhausting day.