Tuesday, August 13, 2024 Woke up early, around 6 or so. Hauled my butt out of the tent and wandered over to the kitchen. Got the water boiling and had a cup of tea. The lake was like a sheet of glass, with wisps of fog scattered on the surface. Turned on the weather radio to see what was what. Sounded like a perfect day coming up. 2 in a row, I must be doing something right. Went back in the woods, got my breakfast pouches of oatmeal(with brown sugar and fake maple syrup flavoring)fired up the stove and had breakfast. The sun was getting higher up by now, so I cleaned up my breakfast dishes(large mug and a spoon)and pondered what I wanted to do. I decided to get on the water and head up north. Last year, I came across a deadhead with a stamp on the end, and I wanted to see if I could find any others. Now on this landing, I quickly found out that the best way to get back on the lake was to back out, turn the bow lakeward, then back up again to avoid the big rocks under the surface, and then head onto the lake itself. As I was heading up along the shore, I observed that there were really no places to put a campsite, much less land a canoe. FS really had their work cut out for them to put sites on Slim. I got to the bay where I had found the log, and just kinda paddled and coasted. I don't know if there is a more perfect setting-sun shining, light breeze blowing, and sitting in a canoe with the lake to yourself. I continued to paddle and coast while looking for deadheads. They can hard to see, since only a few inches of the log are visible. Kinda like looking for a manatee coming up for air. I got into the big bay on the west side and just floated along. There is an enormous bluff on that side, kind of on a point, then you go into the bay. I had an urge to see if I could land the canoe and hike up it. Silly me. The shore was rocky, and it looked like the rocks extended out into the water. I did find one place, but it was pretty marshy, and I didn't like that, so I gave up and went back to my search, which proved to be fruitless. I turned around and headed back to camp, lunch was definitely on my mind. After lunch, I checked the weather forecast and they were saying Thursday was going to be wet. I thought to myself if it holds off till mid-morning I should be dry during the portage back to my vehicle, which I was in favor of. I had just started my stove for some tea when I heard a voice. Looking around, I saw a guy about 100 yards away. He didn't come any closer, so I gimped my way up towards him. Turns out he was a hiker, and had never been this way before. He showed me the trail he took to get here on his map, which was the same one that I was on the day before, except I turned back before the junction with the main trail. We chit-chatted for a bit, and he took off. So I went back to my stove, re-lit it, and made a cup of tea. I grabbed my book, and headed down to the shore to read a bit and just look around. It must have been around 2 or so, and I was feeling my age, so I grabbed my PDF, put it against the large rock near the kitchen, leaned back and dozed off. I was woken up by a strange sound. Sounded like somebody was grunting nearby. Cracking one eye, I looked around. Nothing. I hauled myself up, and I could still hear it over my head. Yup, a little red squirrel was upset at me. He and I traded insults for a bit, then he took off. We repeated this scenario for the rest of my time there, about 3 times a day. That was about the only wildlife I saw, except for the loon that showed up in front of the site on Monday and gave a few calls and then took off. I wasn't really hungry enough to cook anything for dinner, so I just sat on the shore, read a little bit, and nibbled on trail mix until the sun started setting. Gimped up to the tent, and debated about whether to take the rain fly off. Forecast was for clear skies, but after my last two rainy trips, I was a little paranoid. Decided to take it down, since I wanted to see if the Aurora would make an appearance. Of course, I slept like a log, and didn't wake up once.