There were rain showers and thunderstorms off and on most of the night. I didn't sleep well and awoke with a headache. I was out of the tent at 5:45 to see a very windy morning, 60 degrees but feeling cooler. The sky was partly cloudy and very pretty. We decided to lay over and wait out the wind, also nurse the stiffness and soreness a little bit. I was concerned about my recently repaired knee, but it seemed to be doing all right at this point. (The brace had helped on the portages.)

This is a really nice campsite. It has two different rocky points for viewing and a few places to explore. The tent site is rather high and unprotected, but drainage was good in the night. We did have a muddy doorway, but no other issues. There were both a chipmunk and a squirrel but they didn't cause any problems, just provided a little entertainment.

We enjoyed a hearty breakfast of eggs, cornmeal pancakes with dried blueberries, real maple syrup, and hot chocolate. Mmmm!

Neil rested and read in the tent, but as always, I like to be outside. I sat on the camp stool, reading my book, taking photos, enjoying the bright blue sky, listening to the wind, and occasionally exploring around the campsite. The wind felt cold and strong, but we were protected and comfortable. The site was protected enough that I was even able to photograph small things. Flowers:

A tiny, delicate damselfly:

And even a forest tent caterpillar. (We would learn much more about these later on.)

As it got warmer, I noticed that there were lots of big black flies. Bigger than house flies, with red eyes, swarming on everything and leaving spots wherever they rested (fly poop--ick!) It was too hot in the tent, which was in the strong sun by now, so I stayed out with them, swatting, muttering, and feeling annoyed. The only good thing was that they didn't seem to bite. Still, I was beginning to realize very quickly that I didn't enjoy their presence!

A couple of canoes came by, but there wasn't any real traffic. We had an early supper (beef stroganoff and peas) about 5:30 so that we could go on an evening paddle, to take advantage of the long daylight hours available in mid-June. A little side trip to Dawkins Creek was very enjoyable, although I confess I would have enjoyed it more if there had been a MOOSE! But we did see the small waterfall by the portage, a family of ducks, some yellow bullhead lilies, and some beautiful, calm water.

While hanging the packs so that we could go out for our evening paddle, the black pack came untied and dropped to the ground. We checked later and found that we had some broken eggs, so I had to clean up a bit of a mess before bedtime. It worked out OK, as Neil had low blood sugar and we just had scrambled eggs along with our other bedtime snacks.

Notice the flies on his white shirt. What you cannot see is that by the time he took the shirt off, it was covered with reddish spots. Repellent didn't repel these flies. They seemed attracted by warmth.

There was a lovely evening calm on this night, with cool temperatures and a pinkish sunset. It was a nice ending to a good layover day--an unusual one because it came so early in the trip. We sat up later than usual, enjoying the sunset colors, with pink reflections in the lake and an almost-full moon reflected there as well. This was a pleasant evening. We didn't know enough yet to appreciate the gift that the cooler temperature was giving us--no flies! We hadn't fully realized that the flies were there to stay!