Tuesday, July 16, 2024 Jesse's birthday, layover on Vera. He got coffee going while I made potato pancakes and bacon. Had second cups of coffee and enjoyed the beautiful calm morning. Set the solar shower on the rocks to heat up and went for a paddle. We looked at all the campsites on Vera....from east to west along the south shore: closest to portage: one very nice tent pad, kitchen okay, tree down at chest height along with big pile of bear poop on the latrine trail. / 4 or 5 tent pads, lots of trails, kitchen area decent but not amazing./ crummy landing, 3 okay tent pads, jackpines and dirt, latrine trail really long / landing okay with canoe garage but slippery sloped rockface to access site. Not good kitchen, no camp furniture. 1 1/2 tent pads?

Came back to camp and hung the shower.....boy did that feel good. Saw 2 loons running across the water in short spurts. When I looked through my binoculars, the one in front had a biggish fish in it's beak. I'd love to know that story!

Rained on and off during the afternoon, but got to have another fire, chili and quesadillas.

~Vera Lake