This morning everyone seemed a bit more tired. I think the thought of redoing the 200 rod portage hung over us as we slowly packed up. The sun was out and the day was shaping up nicely. Spirits raised and the thought of a new camp with an afternoon of swimming and playing was enough to motivate.

The traveling went pretty well. The kids said they were only doing the portage once. We didn't press them on it and just buckled down and got it done. Once we were back on Upper Pauness lake, we found the campsite we were hoping for was open. It is the third site just North of the portage. It's a large open area with a nice rocky hill overlooking the lake. Plenty of room to run and play. Soon everyone was in the water and then lunch was made.

It was here that my new Katadyn Basecamp filter died. It had been slowing down over the past two days but now was no more than a drip and could not keep up with the demands of 6 thirsty people. I have a Katadyn hiker that I've been happy with for 10 years so it was a disappointment to have the Base camp fail so quickly. There is a long thread on this topic on the message boardand it was nice to find I wasn't alone in this problem. We boiled water for the rest of the trip and it wasn't too big an inconvenience other than the kids complaining about drinking warm water.

After lunch the girls played ponies and the adults rested. I strung up a hammock, put on my headphones and grabbed a magazine. Most of the time I just lay there starring up through the pine trees, taking in the scent, feeling the breeze blow and dusting off the occasional mosquito. I felt glad to be alive and grateful to be able to spend time in this place.

My brother and I took another shot at fishing. We paddled up wind and drifted down, casting into shore. Fairly quickly I landed a small but edible northern. I probably wouldn't have kept it but his eye got hooked pretty good and I didn't think he would survive. That being our only fish, it was a small but nice fish appetizer before a dinner of freeze dried beef stew. Pretty good. Since this was our last night we cleaned out the food pack and made the rest of the biscuits, popped some popcorn and roasted the rest of the marshmallows. While we feasted we watched a deer doing the same just across our small bay. I don't know if he saw us or not but he seemed pretty content to go about his business for some time. The evening was perfectly still and the lake became an undisturbed pane of glass. Everyone was taking in the beauty and feeling sad that tomorrow we would leave.