DAY FOUR, SABBATH 7/18/2015 - No portages or major paddling. Bonnie Lake

Sometime in early morning a giant turtle decided that life was boring elsewhere and that the small mouth on the stringer was misplaced and lost and its correct destination was the turtle's stomach. Grandpa woke up first and saw the canoe trying to embark on an expedition without us. The stringer had been tied to the canoe and a giant turtle swallowed the whole fish and had the stringer playing tonsillitis inside of him. Mr. Turtle was trying to escape but could not. However before the rest of the human life forms awoke and saw what was taking place, Mr. Turtle somehow managed to spit out the end of the stringer and make off with his bounty like the pirate he was.

Every meal on this trip was prepared by my wife and her sister for which everyone, except maybe the two of them, were extremely thankful. Three people were eating gluten free diets which makes cooking for a group more difficult since some items were naturally gluten free such as lentils or vegetable soup while other items like muffins, pancakes, or pasta had to be prepared separate. Today was spent relaxing around camp, paddling around the lake a bit fishing, and giving back rubs to some very tired muscles. My son Nathan got his fishing lure stuck in a tree near the water's bank while we were fishing from the canoe. The lure dropped down into the water while the line was still tangled and all of a sudden a small mouth bass was hooked. He was so excited and we paddled over, freed the fishing line, and brought the fish in. That lake was very shallow but must have some decent size fish for Grandpa had his fishing line take off then break, possibly from teeth. He had brought no leaders to prevent fishing cutting the line and so I gave him one of mine. I did not care for my leaders' design but used them anyway. That day saw some fried Northern and Small mouth bass in some cajun style breading mix.

Ever since the leech became friends with my foot the kids were all very hesitant about standing in the water to help load or unload the canoe. It was almost comical to me but at times frustrating at how much they wanted to avoid the leeches.