A new day dawned in paradise. I got up and made another bacon omelet for breakfast. It was obvious that I had brought more food with me than I needed. I was OK with an extra dehydrated dinner because it's good to have if one gets held over for a day by weather. But there was no excuse for bringing so much lunch food.

I spent the day first exploring the part of Malberg west of camp and doing some fishing. I had a slam from a pretty big smallie right at the boat but it never bit the hook, so it stayed wet. I checked out the campsite that has a beach (1051) - it offered nice seclusion but looked like it could get pretty buggy. I've camped at beach sites before and I'm not really a fan - the sand gets into everything and if it rains it takes forever for things to dry out.

After some exploring on Malberg I headed back to camp to have some lunch. I still had 2 packs of summer sausage, a nearly full jar of peanut butter, a nearly full box of crackers and a large bag of trail mix left in the food bag. For whatever reason, I packed enough lunch food to last 2 people for a week. Anyway, I ate some lunch even though I wasn't very hungry and then forced myself to eat more because I didn't want to have so much food to pack out when I left. I know from experience that my appetite tends to diminish when I'm tripping; someday I'll remember to learn from my experience!

After lunch I headed back out in the canoe to explore the Louse River east of camp, going up to Frond and fishing some on the way. I got no bites but the paddling was easy even though it was against the current. The water was high and I didn't run into any obstacles. The Louse River looks wild and I was kicking myself for not going back to Trail Lake when I had the chance. I'll have to save that for a later trip.

I eventually headed back as the shadows were getting longer and the sun was lowering in the west. I love the long days of the middle of summer, but now, at my age, even those seem to go by in a flash. I reminded myself why I had come up here and savored the moment. I knew that my time in the wilderness was growing short, but I thought of the people I was close to and had recently lost. They would never get a chance to experience the wilderness again, and I was determined to enjoy this life for as long as I was able.