Tuesday, September 25, 2018 Awoke to a cool low 40's, overcast, calm, very decent morning. A light breeze out of the north perfect for my south paddle towards Washington island, so I wasted no time getting on the water wanting to get the big water of Basswood lake behind me today. As I was setting off I got a four bald eagle show with two of them engaged in what looked like a mock battle with the other two cheering them on. It was nice to be on a pretty calm Basswood lake and I paddled with gusto south down to Washington and Lincoln islands. I saw people getting towed in and dropped off on the north side of Lincoln island, the first people I had seen since Wheelbarrow Falls. I swung east around Ottawa Island hoping the north wind would stay calm and wouldn't hinder me from reaching Prairie Portage(PP) today. It did pick up a bit in the Bayley Bay area but it took me less than 3 hours total to reach PP. I did the easy 60r portage to the top for the dam, and rested, ate lunch and adjusted my map as I decided to get off the border and head for smaller water with more body warming portages. So I paddled Sucker lake south and east to the very easy portage to Splash lake. Fisher map says it's 35r but today it couldn't have been more than half that. I saw more loons and people since PP, than I have since day 1. Did the very short pull over into Ensign Lake and saw even more people. I saw more people on Ensign than I think I did the whole rest of the trip combined. Chose camp site #1231 on Ensign Lake as my spot for the night. A nice landing and a well protected partially grassy tent pad was perfect for a soloist. I had learned that a nice landing and a good tent pad is what was most important to me in less than ideal weather conditions on a solo. The camp kitchen area was least important as I spent very little time there. Since it has been raining on and off luckily mostly at night for days, fires and the big tarp were not happening. I had tried to have several fires recently and they were more work than they were worth. So I learned that sitting by the tent under the little tarp was much less camp work and very comfortable, though it didn't always afford me the best views as I usually chose the tucked back in tent pads to stay out of the chilly winds. About 6 hours of total travel time today and it felt great to get some miles behind me.