The day began in the same way that many great BWCA trips start, with breakfast at Britton's! After that we grabbed a coffee and started to get going. After dropping our car at the exit on Wood we were off on Fall. The fall colors were coming in and it was looking beautiful. We made it on to Newton and then it wasn't long until we were getting rained on. Rain ended up being very off and on again throughout the whole day. The portage to Basswood (Pipestone Bay) was a nice one as it offered a great elevated view of Pipestone Falls from the portage. Katie and I, although fairly wet, were having fun and appreciating how far we could see down Basswood (so long!). I learned this trip that Katie has a great fear of headwinds while paddling apparently due to her teaching young campers how to canoe on a very windy day at camp. We did our best to muscle through the wind and to stick to the sides as best we could. After a quick stop near Washington Island to do some fishing, we were off to find our site for the day. The rain was beating us down, so we decided to stop a little early for the day. We landed at site #1600. Besides the poison ivy on the beach and walk up it was a decent site. We quickly set our tent up and started to configure our tarp so we could have a dry sitting spot. After venturing out to find wood I was happy to find and cut the perfect piece of wood to hold our tarp up in the middle and prevent pooling water. After camp was set up, we laid down to warm up for a bit and had a nice chat sheltered from the rain. We got up and had steaks and mash for dinner (love the day 1 dinners!). We chatted some more after dinner and went for a pretty brief after dinner paddle until a few raindrops threatened to get our nice dry clothes wet. After scurrying back to camp, we took a moment before bed to admire the stars in the dark sky where Katie, in classic fashion, pointed out the big dipper to me. We then meandered back to the tent and retired for the day.