I wake up to the sound of rain falling on my tent. Regent is already awake as the sun is already up, though he tries to be patient until I stir. Once I move, he knows its feeding time. I get dressed and reach out to undo the tent flap. I’ve set the tent up literally right at the edge of the tarp, so can crawl from the tent directly into the bug net. I wander over a few yards to where I had secured the barrel to a tree and retrieve the dog food, serve, take him for a quick relief and then crawl back into the tent. After yesterday I’m waiting for better weather, once again. We both go back to sleep.

Got up again about 10:30AM. Once again the rain had stopped and it seemed like the weather might be getting lighter. After eating, I hung up my wet clothes from the day before, and Regent and I went to explore the area. There was a big pile of moose poo on the main trail from the fire grate to the latrine. It wasn’t real fresh, yet no one had stepped in it. I realized I was only about 200 yards from where I had seen that big bull moose the day before; this must be his turf. I further explored the shoreline which was really rather lovely, but could not go far without getting wet again. Bologna is really a beautiful lake.

Back in camp I read and write until mid-afternoon, and eventually it looked like the sky was starting to break up. I love those first moments of blue sky. Sadly, they were also the last moments of blue sky, and then it started to rain heavily. Again. I brought in the wet clothes and got out the wine.

Obviously, I turned in early again. I had now had two layover days due to weather, paddled in one light and one heavy day of rain, paddled in one day of wind, and had mosquitoes everywhere. Sometimes its a bit of work to remember how much I love paddling the Boundary Waters.