Monday, July 15, 2024 Broke camp fairly early, calm and not raining, but grey. Sprinkled some on the paddle over to the Vera portage. Not a bad portage, although the climb out of ensign gets your heart pumping, and the portage is lined with very healthy poison ivy. Felt shorter than 180 rods, but maybe that's just because it wasn't so hot.

Took the campsite on the northeast end of Vera. Jesse has decided that he really enjoys shorter days with time to explore an area, and I'm fine with that. Got a decent rain shelter set up while it sprinkled so all our gear was protected before the thunderstorms started. Saw a sad group paddling down the lake as it poured buckets. We didn't have the tent up yet, and that ended up being a blessing.

Once the rain kinda quit I went and looked at the 3 nice flat tent pads in camp and......they were all lakes. I scouted around the edges of camp and just down the shore was a beautiful spot. Tucked into the trees, elevated, dry, shady. You have to follow the stepping stones along the shore. Set up there before the rain got going again.

Finally cleared up and was a gorgeous evening. Cut and split some wood, had cajun smack chicken and rice. Last photo is of one of the tent pads in the mud.

~Ensign Lake, Vera Lake