These photos are taken between 5:30 and 6 am at camp 19 on July 20, showing that all four quadrants of the sky are dark and look like rain. I stayed two days because I wanted the second rest day but I would like to move on to the next falls where there is a good campsite and walleye fishing. Up at 3:30 am, the mosquitoes are very bothersome so wear my hat scarf. Mosquitoes continue to be bad quite often the next four days.
I stop to eat at a small shoal that is only 1 x 5 metres with a few shrubs. Even with a breeze the blackflies are bothersome but there is no wood here to make a fire, so I have a quick breakfast and bathroom break.
With only six km to travel, I reach previous camp 2 quite early at 8:30 am.
Two nice pike for supper. It takes a while to get used to eating pike after getting accustomed to walleye. The first day I catch and release two good-sized pike in the rapids below the falls thinking I will catch walleye. I do finally get the one and only walleye while here plus another pike which I keep. After that I only take pike each day.
At the rock ledge below the falls, I pick many Saskatoon berries and a few raspberries and gooseberries.
Very damp nylon tent and tarp. There is a lot of rain the first night. Starting the second evening, it rains and keeps up over the next three days, raining on and off, sometimes steadily for a few hours, sometimes quite hard, both day and night. It is a very good rain, better than forest fire, but sometimes it can be difficult to think so. On the third day, luckily I get up at 5:30 am early enough to bake a cinnamon bannock at the fireplace before the rain drives me to eat under the tarp shelter at 7:30 am. It is cool with the strong wind, and raining, so I go to the nylon tent at 3:40 pm and remain there to eat a cold supper, being careful not to contaminate any part of the tent or gear with food. I rarely eat in the nylon tent but sometimes it is unavoidable. The rain lessens at 5:15 pm so I get dressed and erect the canvas tent and stove. I have to get poles, saw firewood, start the stove and move gear from the nylon tent to the canvas tent. By 8:50 pm I am quite wet but am comfortable and drying out in the warm tent. Yeah! On the fourth morning, still raining, I have a wonderful bath in the rain. It is Monday, and I am surprised that I am able to use the satellite phone to get Jeanette's weekly text message "OK here. No fires 4u. Only 7 in SK. Many in BC. Crazy lightning everywhere." Perhaps this rain is widespread. The rain continues and rather than get clothes wet again, I saw more stovewood wearing only socks, boots and leather mitts, then have another bath. Temperature has remained at 13 - 17℃ with a few mosquitoes entering the canvas tent, so I do have to burn a mosquito coil each evening before bedtime, during which time I spend 30 minutes (dressed) under the tarp shelter. The falls and rapids are noticeably higher and louder with all the rainfall, the water level on the boulder where I bathe is at least 30 cm higher than when I arrived. On the evening of the fifth day, the falls and rapids are really roaring now and water level is even higher. Leaving tomorrow does not look promising but the target date to reach my vehicle is only two days.
Unfortunately, but appropriately, my many-years-old pee bottle takes a leak through an undetected crack onto the floor tarp in the nylon tent. Thank goodness it did not all run out of the bottle, and did not contaminate the sleeping bag, but there is still a lingering odour for at least one week. The bottle gets last rites and then is burned in the fireplace. Until I can replace it, my aluminum pot serves double duty at night.