It was another long portage into Ensign Lake. It went quite easy given the lack of a food pack.

Again the rain was with us all day.

At one point on Ensign we stopped at an occupied campsite to ask for some matches. They seemed a little put off which struck me as odd. We didn't ask for any food and they didn't offer. I know people take just enough food for themselves so I didn't begrudge them that but I didn't think a few matches was asking for too much.

We pushed hard and made it to the Ensign into Splash portage. It was so short and the water was so high due all the damn rain that we decided to paddle the canoe through the little creek that connected them. It worked like a charm. In fact, it worked so well that we tried it again at the Splash into Newfound portage.

This time the creek had some rapids to it so we took the pack out and decided to shoot the rapids with just us in the canoe. It started out well but I can still see the tiny little edge of a boulder that caught the bow of the canoe and turned us sideways. Once we were sideways I knew we were in trouble. I tried to use a pry stroke to get the bow back downstream but we hit some rocks. The canoe tipped and the paddle I was prying with launched me out into the rapids "sans canoe". I bounced off of several rocks before reaching the slow water where I could stand up. I looked up, and there was Justine, trooper that she was holding a canoe full of rushing water so that it wouldn't go through the rapids. I told her to let go and I caught it at the bottom.

We were lucky! I got both paddles back and we, thankfully, still had a dry pack at the top of the portage. All we lost was a cap. But, inside Justine's rain coat pocket was a puddle of water and our disposable camera...you know...the one with the bear pictures. The only injuries were my two bleeding shins.

We paddled into Newfound Lake and then to the edge of Moose where we had to camp because it was getting dark. We heated the can of spaghetti sauce and dipped carrot sticks into it.

We again turned in early.

Vera Lake, Ensign Lake, Splash Lake, Newfound Lake, Moose Lake