Up at 5 again. You would think we had an alarm clock! Quick breakfast and out on the water by 7 AM. Portaged 16 rods to Minn Lake. The wind was picking up. Walked through three rapids because there were no portages. we would have liked to go see Twin Falls, but it didn't seem feasible.

Martin Bay is a narrow arm across to Lac La Croix. At this point the head wind picked up. Very strong chop as we got back into LLC. Stopped for lunch at the point at the entrance to LLC and I slipped on a rock and fell. bruised ankles and hand, and shoulder a bit sore. Seem to be OK, though.

The wind was so fierce we decided to camp at 12:30 on a narrow point opposite East Bend Island. It isn't a great site--very high up and the wind so strong! I don't know how we'll have a fire safely [we didn't seem to have a stove along on this trip, probably because I hated carrying the big Coleman stove on the portages on the last trip.] The wind whips and whips and wears me out just to hear it. The tent is like a big balloon. The temp is 89 degrees at 3:45.

It was hazy this morning and now is sunny with big fluffy white clouds and a S/SW wind. I found a few ripe blueberries. Our site has some nice large red pine trees.

We fixed supper about 6 PM over a small, very carefully constructed fire. Put it out right away. As we had done so (6:30) we smelled smoke. There is a forest fire directly across on East Bend Island! The wind is still whipping and it is VERY SCARY!

At 7:30 a big yellow plane came to fight the fire. There is a pump over there, too. The plane flew over 5-6 times and dropped water from above. Then he flew over us as we were watching high on the point, and dipped his wing. We waved.

[I realize that it is very hard to see the plane in this picture. It is in the middle of the frame, in the smoke, and looks very small. Believe me, it didn't look that small to us, and it was very clear. It is still clear in my mind how I felt seeing the firefighting.]

The smoke on the island was alarming, and we were thankful for the efforts of the firefighters. We did hope that this small fire would be contained and not reach to our location.

A small white plane flew in, too. Then as we were going back to camp about 8:30 a speedboat came up to our shore. It was an Indian man and a (cute) firefighter. The fireman was "Ontario Fire Control". Orange suit, helmet, rubber boots, etc. He asked us if we'd seen anyone, and said the fire was started by a campfire. He told us to be very careful of our fires.

It was a very exciting evening. The firefighters' pump ran past 9:30. We retired about 9:50. It is still really light. There is a large moon, [waxing gibbous] about 3/4 full. It looks huge and bright. Another warm night for sleeping.