The morning started sunny and I was eager to try out my new GSI French Press, so the coffee was on early, followed by oatmeal.

After packing up lunch and some stuff for a day trip, we paddled up the west shore of Cherokee checking out campsites and exploring. Each campsite was empty as we made our way north before paddling to one of the island sites about halfway up Cherokee for lunch. Hot dogs and trail mix made up lunch, and we tried to wait out some light rain before finally resigning to the fact that it wasn't going to stop raining soon, and paddled back to camp.

Not wanting to spend our only entire day in the BWCA under a tarp or in my tent, I donned my rain gear and went off with my hatchet and saw in search of fire wood since we were going to need a fire to make pizza with the reflector oven that night. Thank goodness for the saw. Fire would not have been possible without it. We enjoyed a 20-minute stint of sun before dinner, and were relieved to have a nice fire going for pizza and cookies on the oven.

The anticipated cold front finally moved in following dinner and we enjoyed our second campfire that night as temps dropped into the 40s and the wind howled pretty good. Again, we were lucky to get some clear skies after dark for star- gazing.