We woke up early the next morning for a breakfast of hot chocolate, Mountain House Breakfast Skillet, and failed pancakes. We forgot to bring oil (the only thing we forgot!) for the just add water pancakes, and it was a pan-sticking disaster. Luckily, the MH Breakfast Skillet was plenty of food.

After breakfast and dishes, we headed out for our day trip to Winchell. We paddled through the rest of Gaskin, admiring all the beautiful sights on the lake, and arrived at our portage into Henson. We were grateful to only have to portage our canoe and a day pack this time!

Henson was probably my least favorite lake of the trip. We noticed the water was slightly yellowish and didn't taste as great as the water from Gaskin, but we did find a lovely spot to stop for lunch towards the end of the lake. We had our fill of pita bread filled with chicken and cheese, summer sausage, and snap pea chips. After a few pictures and letting our lunch settle, we headed back on the water to reach our portage into Omega.

Omega Lake, on the other hand, was my favorite lake of the trip. I loved all the coves and branches, and how peaceful (even more so than the other lakes we visited) the lake seemed. We found ourselves stopping frequently to just admire the scenery and listen to nature.

When we reached our portage into Winchell, we really didn't want to leave Omega yet, but knew we didn't want to go home without seeing the cliffs. We stopped for a bit to snap some pictures on the big rock, and then made our way into the woods to find the next lake.

Winchell was lovely, but we were a little intimidated by its size. We enjoyed the cliffs, but forgot to snap pictures, as we were pretty deep in conversation about our favorite parts of the trip so far. We stopped at campsite after awhile on the lake, and had a snack of cheese, crackers, and Sweetarts. That's when I heard running water across the lake and remembered reading about the waterfall on Winchell. We finished our food and crossed the lake to investigate. When we thought we found the source, we tied off our canoe and went into the woods to find it. We were not disappointed. We made a new friend with a frog, and had a great time exploring the hidden waterfall!

After we finished our detour at the waterfall, we headed back onto Winchell to start paddling to camp. We took our time on the lake, and saw a lot of loons. The loons were probably my husband's favorite thing about the entire trip. We were able to get pretty close and get some neat pictures. We couldn't believe how many we saw!

We got back to camp later in the evening, and the mosquitoes were insane. It was like the constant whining of a violin on an excessively high note. We quickly ate dinner under the last light of the sun, and then headed into our tent to escape the mosquito nightmare outside.

Lakes visited: Gaskin, Henson, Omega, Winchell