July 7, 10℃ at 3 a.m., reaching 24℃ by midday. On arising at camp 13, it is clear and sunny, with warblers and sparrows filling the air with cheerful song. After finishing the two portages down the river, I notice a beautiful mackerel sky behind the canoe, which gradually expands across the entire sky before overtaking me. Such clouds usually predict weather change.
Reaching previous camp 11, I have travelled four km, including two portages (135, 235 metres).
Setting up camp in the former location is much faster. It is easy to dig a firepit in the old spot. A snowshoe hare has been busy eating some of the spruce branches I had placed under the previous tarp shelter. Removing all the old boughs, it then takes about 30 minutes to sweep the spot relatively clean as I do not relish sitting amongst all the droppings. A fire shoos the blackflies, but not the very bothersome horseflies that bite right through my two sweat-soaked shirts ... buggers really hurt!
Dry moss-covered dead pine branches make good tinder.
One of the poles for the nylon tent needs repair after the shock cord holding the sections together breaks. A moment to break, 30 minutes to fix. To rethread the elastic rope through the individual poles, I pull through a length of dental floss tied to some three mm rope, then tie the floss to the shock cord to pull it in turn. The difficult frustrating part of the exercise is tying the severed cords back together because one is very short. It seems like I need three hands and smaller fingers, but using the vice-grips to hold the long section of stretched cord from retracting allows me to tie the knot. After a few failed attempts, I manage to reassemble the sections tied together with the shock cord. The same thing happens later to another pole before I realize that the break occurs while carrying the miscellaneous duffel bag containing the tent pegs in the same drawstring bag as the poles. I have just been lucky it has never happened before. Hopefully separating the pegs from the poles will prevent a repeat occurrence.
In previous seasons my leather belt tends to break because of the weight of the bear spray, multitool and utility belt bag (containing watch, small fingernail clippers, compact jackknife for cleaning small game, a safety pin for removing splinters, BIC® lighter, waxed cardboard tinder, lip balm, 3 pieces flagging tape). This year, to lessen the strain, the only item on the belt is the bear spray. The other items are placed in a belt bag carried around my waist. This belt bag also contains in-use ammunition, four small Ziploc® bags for collecting salad greens or berries, the SPOT™ Satellite Messenger, headnet, sunglasses.
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Starting to fish at the closest point of the small sheltered nearby bay, I hook a pike right away but lose him. Even though I try all five of my regular lures, he does not bite again but follows them right up to the canoe each time just to tease me. Then I canoe and fish around the shore of the bay in the lee of the moderate wind with no luck. When I get to the far side of the bay, now exposed to the wind, I have to keep paddling back out from shore. But I am glad I try fishing here because I catch two walleye for tonight's supper and three pike for tomorrow.
Supper - two pans of fried walleye (coated with cornmeal and Montreal steak spice), a mint, couscous (with nutritional yeast and chicken soup base), fireweed salad (with lemon pepper), hot water.
July 8, awake to rain so I sleep in until 5:10 a.m.. Last night at midnight my left big toe was aching so badly that I got up and removed the bandages, then put triple antibiotic ointment on the offending area beside the nail which might be infected although I cannot see obvious signs.
When I hang sleep gear in the sun on the edge of the hill facing the lake, I realize this might be a perfect day to do laundry. There is easy access to water, a nearby spot for the pail with an area far enough from the lake to dump the wash water. Since starting the trip June 2, this is the first time doing laundry which is overdue, even though (from my journal) "Clothes dirty on the outside, look clean on the inside ... so only half dirty." It sure feels good to change to clean clothes before starting the wash. By 5 p.m. the clothesline has lost access to sunshine, so I move it to the front of the tarp shelter which is in the sun. After supper, I prepack to move camp tomorrow. Before bedtime I dress my sore toe with antibiotic ointment and Gold Bond® powder.
July 9, 8℃, up at 3 a.m. to pack sleep gear inside nylon tent. Before putting on my left sock I apply more antibiotic ointment and Gold Bond® powder. The sky is completely overcast when I go outside the tent, so I move gear to the tarp shelter, only somewhat optimistic that I will be able to move on. As I am taking down the tent, it starts to rain. With a blazing fire going, sitting under the tarp to eat breakfast at 5:30 a.m., I am ready to leave. From my journal: "Doesn't look promising. May have to put camp back up!", at 6 a.m. "I think I may as well stay and put tent up again! Aie!" and by 8 a.m. "Camp back to where it was at 3 a.m.!"
Because I had emptied the three camp water pots last night in order to pack the kitchen barrel, now I must fetch and boil lake water again. (When I prepack, I do keep the small aluminum pot full of boiled water for breakfast the next morning.) Erecting the clothesline just under the front of the tarp shelter, near the firepit, I hang the remaining damp laundry to dry (three pairs of heavy socks). One thing I learned a long time ago was to be patient when drying clothes, not too close to flames. Charred socks are much too dry.
From my journal, as the rain continues: "Sure glad I stayed in camp. Thank gods for letting me know it's going to be a wet day before leaving camp! Today is probably the record for breaking and making camp within one hour. Have been hauling firewood all morning it seems."
By noon, the rain appears to have stopped, and I take canoe out to catch a walleye for supper. Before leaving, I hang the socks to finish drying in the tent. Back to camp at 3:30 p.m. with a pike, not a walleye. There are no open spots along the shores to clean the fish so I tether the canoe alongside a sun-bleached tree fallen into the lake, half out of the water. Leaning out of the canoe, I use the log as a filleting board and then my cutting board on the moss in the canoe to finish. (The moss is the layer I place in the canoe to rest caught fish so as to minimize soiling the boat.) Although I could catch more fish, I stop at one, being sated with the big catch two days earlier. In total I have canoed an extra four km from camp for fishing.
To the tent by 7 p.m., before bedtime I dress my toe with antibiotic ointment and powder. Nothing else has helped, and this treatment might.