Pancake breakfast this morning. I don’t know why. Tradition I guess. They come out well, though it is a bit time consuming. Still we are on the water by 9:15.

We are only doing one portage today (we hope), the 216-rod from Shell to Lower Pauness. We want to get the longer portage out of the way so that we have a shorter/easier day on Saturday when we leave. We also want to check out Devil’s Cascade. If we have to go to Upper Pauness to get a site we will have to backtrack to see it.

The northwest site on Lower Pauness, the one closest to Devil’s Cascade, is open. It is 11:00 a.m. We take it. The site on the point across the lake is occupied. The site on the southern arm, which we passed on the way in, is marshy looking and so we never checked to see if it was open.

I like this site. It is up on a rock point and has two good tent pads. There is also a nice place for the tarp. The latrine, however, is up a steep hill. It is a bit of a climb to get to it. There is a good canoe landing and there seems to be good swimming out front.

Before noon the tents and tarp are set up, firewood gathered, and water filtered. Good thing because 5 minutes later we have a 5-minute rain, followed by a few sprinkles, then a short shower, and then at 2:45 we have a real soaker. The morning was real hot, perhaps in the 80s.  When the front bringing the rain came through the temperature dropped 20 (or more) degrees. It was downright chilly. No wind, though. That’s good.

The rain stopped long enough for us to make a visit to Devil’s Cascade. Very cool. Nice thundering rapids and falls. We walked the entire portage. The Loon Lake end is quite steep. The landing, however, reminds me of home – cattails, a tiny creek, and lots of vegetation around.

We wanted to check out the campsite mid portage but it was occupied. A bunch of 20-something guys had it. They were a mixed bunch – one seemed an experienced adventurer and the others didn’t have a clue. Seemed to me to be a mix of expectations as well, adventure vs. party. As you can imagine, most were not happy. I saw a pair doing the most unimaginable dance with an aluminum canoe trying to get it up for portaging. Julie wanted to help them. I stopped her. They were embarrassed enough. I have a feeling that was their only campsite. I think they either stayed there their entire trip or one night became their entire trip.

When we got back to camp, it started to rain again, however, it did stop by 6:00 p.m. Even though we got a fair amount of rain this trip, really it cooperated with us. It wouldn’t rain until we got at least a tarp up, stop again when we wanted to pitch the tents, and would stop when we wanted to go somewhere like Devil’s Cascade.

Despite the rain we were able to get a good fire going this time. Supper was Spanish rice with dehydrated hamburger and bannock. Good. Simple. Hits the spot. I think we had lunchbox jello, mandarin orange, fruit cups for dessert.

Beautiful evening. No more rain. A little wind. We watch the fire and the stars until 10:15 and then off to bed.