Wednesday, August 24, 2022 So as Longfellow famously said "Into each canoe trip some rain must fall / Some days must be dark and dreary.” Or something like that. Well today was that day for us. We woke to a dreary overcast morning. Up at sunrise but we didn't see it. We made our morning coffee and a quick breakfast. Proceeded to pack everything up into our 8 bags of gear. I know I keep mentioning that but I just want to remind myself to pare down our gear significantly. As we finished and were ready to load and launch the canoes, until we heard the distant boom of thunder. So we sat around for another 45 minutes to wait it out. Sat around and tried to remember the formula for how far away the lightning was by how long it was before we heard the thunder. It moved around us and we tested the theory . I think the duration is about 6 seconds for a mile. The weather report said some thunder and lightning in the morning followed by occasional showers. which hadn't started yet. I had paddled in some rain on the end of the first day and thought "that wasn't that bad, let's go ahead and knock some miles out." Our plan was to head east across Crooked and go for a site in Thursday Bay by early afternoon. I got loaded and headed across to the portage around Curtain Falls. I've gotten in the habit of getting out quickly as the tandem always overtakes and passes me in the big open water. Then the rest of the time I'm chasing them. There is a hint of misting in the air as we land on the shore of the bay South of the Curtain Falls outflow. It adds about 24 hill rods the portage but I have heard it's much safer than the landing at the base of the falls. Just as we start portaging our 8 bags(okay I'll stop), a light rain starts to fall. Okay I can deal with these kind of showers. We do our portaging as the rain gets heavier. Martin goes back for the last bag and we wait as the rain moves into full deluge stage. After our planned early start, we had the lightning delay, the triple portaging, and now trying to wait out the worst of the rain. as the rain slacked off we jumped in the canoes and headed out. It was close to 11 AM by now. At least there were no more portaging today ....yay... There was wind right in our faces. And 6 to 10 inch waves coming right at us. I cut across the cove but sort of hugged the shore towards the island Southeast. Which worked well because it blocked some of the wind. It was still slow going for this newbie in a solo, even with the double blade. With my paddling skills, a canoe paddle would've been useless in my hands under those conditions. But I think I handled it pretty well. The Tandem with the power twins beelined the shortest route and were well ahead of me as I approached the corner. Coming around the point, I hit the full force of the headwind and stopped me quicker than the lily pads on Beartrap river. This also when the rain continued to fall heavily. Looking up, I see the tandem well across the bay in some big open water, which I am not going to do.. I decide to land and reassess. I'm still a little uneasy about being to far from shore in these conditions. They are almost to the next point and are concentrating on paddling. Looking back for me would be difficult and downright dangerous for them at that point. I'm not going across THAT in these conditions. As I watch my traveling companions disappear around the point. I get my rain pants on that I thought I didn't need earlier. Though it was closing the barn door after the horse was gone, I was soaked head to toe. My lower half from the rain and my upper half from the sweat. I figured it would be like a wetsuit and at least trap some body heat. At this point, I'm going to wait it out and see what happens. Soon my cousins come back around the point to see what happened to me. The come up to my landing spot and are relived to find that I didn't dump in the water. The gear is wet but not saturated and still in the canoe. At this point I exercise a personal Veto to any more travel in conditions that are downright scary to me. Martin says there is an empty campsite (#1850) right around the corner from us and I say that's a fine idea. Apparently they weren't enjoying the conditions either. I get my canoe back in the water and mount up. Wow wet footing is okay! The water feels warmer than being out in the open air. Bad sign as my legs must be extremely cold for that feeling. Luckily I had put on my thermal undershirt along with other layers on top so my core was still warm, for now. I paddled straight into the wind and waves then turned for a straight shot to the campsite. And I beat the tandem this time! Maybe the thought of getting off the water gave me wings. We got the tarps up asap and I changed into dry clothes. Then we waited it out under the tarp. The rain let up and I was able to get the fire started. We scoped out the tent/hammock sites and settled in. Too tired to get the fishing gear out so we just hung around for the rest of the afternoon. and an early dinner. Total people/groups seen. Saw the same campers on Iron as we left. Nobody but us idiots out in canoes.