Our second night was a little warmer due to the cloud cover, and we awoke to a cloudy morning on day 3. Once again we had Lesley's famous oatmeal mix for breakfast. We decided to set up a tarp to put things under. I really enjoy trying to set up a real tight tarp with as few knots as possible to untie. I use a trucker's hitch to tighten things up and wrap around trees without tying down, just looping under. We roped together a long beaver stick with a short one to make a perfect size to prop up the tarp in the middle, and we tied a rag around the top to cushion the end on the tarp. I worked awhile on our firewood pile, which was now pretty large. We then geared up the canoe for another day of fishing. We had our 3rd day of east wind, but mild. George had been saying that east wind means fish west ends, so we decided to portage to the west end of Crystal Lake and start at the west end, fishing shorelines. The portage to Crystal was very simple, 51 rods in length, and without all gear. As I finished the portage, I saw 2 loons on Crystal doing thier fishing routines right at the west end. Lots of structure made the west end look like a great fishing spot. George caught a few small bass right away. We both caught a 2.5 lber and George caught another, all smallies. At lunch time we sat on the shore line and ate cheese the rest of our cheese and sausage, with an apple. We took 3 keepers back to camp for dinner. We fished for about 5 hours this 3rd day. As we got back to camp we noticed threatening weather. I turned on my weather radio and we heard storm warnings for the evening and next day, so we started up a camp fire for cooking and sitting around. We got some intermittent drizzle that evening, but nothing like some areas around us that night. We found out later that there were some very heavy rains and winds in the area. So it was a repeat cooking of bass with peas and corn. I think I could eat that about 4/5 nights a week if I had a choice. By the time we cleaned up, the fire was inviting us for more sit and talk, and the shoreline was asking for some casts, so that kept us going until dark. As we sat around the fire we discussed the next day and rest of our stay. We had originally decided to make this a 5 or 6 day trip. We now made that decision for a 5 day trip so that we could get back to George's home and do some day trips to some of George's favorite undisclosed lakes outside the BWCA. That left us one more full day of base camping, and that would be a day trip to the falls, which I had been looking forward to since reading trip reports on this website!  Canoe Lake, Crystal Lake