Woke at 6:30 to showers, so slept until 7:30. Had breakfast and wondered again about weather. It was dry through breakfast and we saw a few blue patches in the sky, so we broke camp, deciding to move on. Then more rain, so we piddled more under the dining fly, finally leaving our 5-star campsite around 10:00. The portage from Trant to Hurlburt was a boulder run, but the area was beautiful—Canadian dogwood loaded with berries, blue bead lily with lots of beads, dolls eyes, and lots of club moss all along the trail. While very short, the portage from Hurlburt was tough—no real trail. Bushwhacked the packs the short distance to the no-name, then floated/lifted the unloaded canoe through the boulder-filled stream into the next lake. Our portage into Payne was partially blocked by a fallen tree. While we were able to push through, we went back with the hand saw and opened it up for future travelers.

We've been through Payne before, but had missed the pictographs in Ahsin Bay. Our notes suggest there's only one campsite in Payne, and we're hoping to get out of the wind, which has been surprisingly strong even though we've been on small lakes all day. We've also been in rain gear most of the day. The site is small, but has good wind protection and a reasonable tent site. We rigged the fly over a nice cooking area and set up the tent, had hot drinks, and relaxed, appreciating our more reasonable stopping time today.

Dinner was curried almond-cranberry couscous with chicken and a dessert of peanut butter & chocolate chip cheesecake. Very nice, but during dinner the evening's mist turned into a downpour. After 15 minutes or so, the rain stopped and the sky cleared—hope that's a sign of better weather tomorrow!