We slept in having decided there would be no travel today. I still woke up by 0700 and started water for coffee on the alcohol burner. I had my brothers coffee made and was making my cup (using the Aeropress) when my dad got out of the tent. He set about remodeling the fire grate area. He first removed of the rocks from the area, disturbing a few snakes in the process. Then he scraped the old ashes out and we buried them outside of camp. Next he restacked the rocks leaving gaps low on the east (windward) side of the grate and then leaving a gap on the opposite top corner of the grate to create draw. He also found a roughly 18” by 24” by 2” rock sheet that he placed next to the grate as a roof extension off to the side of the fire grate. This gave us the ability to have the fire under the rock as well as the grate sheltered from weather.

It turned out that the fire place remodel was a good thing since we started a fire and having part of it sheltered meant that the constant rain all day was not enough to put our fire out. Lunch was brats and cheesy cauliflower soup. While my dad stayed at camp to tend the fire I went out with my brother to find some fish. We caught a couple northern and a walleye each. These became our mid afternoon snack. We had our first wildlife encounter while filleting the fish outside of camp. It scared my sister terribly but an otter came within 10 yards of us to see what we were doing. 

After rain all day the sunset was beautiful. We had some time around the fire before it was time to douse it and go to bed.