I woke up to a sunny, cloudless day, but the wind was blowing like mad from the northwest. There was no way I was going to go out in the canoe solo in that wind, I don't think that I would have tried it even paddling tandem. So I was shore-bound for most of the day; I spent some time reading and some time gathering up firewood. At least with the sun and the wind the clothes I'd hung up the day before (and that got drenched in previous days downpour) had a good chance to dry out.

I explored some around camp. I saw a chipmunk climbing a small "tree" that was full of ripe service berries. I had never seen a chipmunk climb a tree before but they're kinda like mini-squirrels so I guess it made sense.

With the stiff wind blowing most of the day I wasn't surprised that there wasn't any traffic on the lake. In fact, there was really very little canoe traffic on Malberg during my entire stay there. I'm not sure why that was - it's a cool lake and isn't very far from an EP, so I would expect more people to be there, especially during 4th of July week. However, that suited me fine as I was soloing and really enjoyed the solitude.

The wind eventually died down later in the afternoon and I did some canoeing and fishing around the southern part of Malberg. I was getting pretty comfortable with getting in and out of the canoe and with solo paddling in general. One of tips that I got off the BWCA.com forum was to fill a dry bag with water and place in the bow as ballast. That really helped with the stability of the canoe and especially with its tracking when there was wind. What an easy fix!

I had a small fire before it got dark - not for cooking but just for enjoyment. I learned that campfires are much more enjoyable when they're shared, which is another thing I had read (more than once) in this forum. I stayed out until it started to get dark and then made for the tent to dodge the nightly horde of bloodsuckers and called it a day.