Pretty cold last night. Woke up during the night and put on my hat, got Amelia better snugged up into her sleeping bag. Heard her sigh with contentment. I could see my breath when I got up this morning, but there's a clear blue sky, it's not rally windy, and it's warming up fast. Made my last batch of blueberry pancakes this morning with the ones I picked back on Loon. I may have shed a tiny tear. there are plants here but no berries, all picked out. I opted for a second cup of coffee today, knowing that tomorrow will be my final cup.

Spent some time thinking about the food I did and didn't bring. 4 tbs of butter and a tiny squeeze tube of syrup was enough for 4 days of pancakes. I didn't eat lunch very often, so that was mostly wasted weight. I really missed crackers and trail mix, and I didn't really like the jerky bars I brought. Got bored with granola bars. Had a pouch each of olives and pickles, those make the cut for sure! I also really missed cooked dinners, like alfredo pasta or wild rice soup, but didn't miss the pan cleanup....so it's a toss up.

Paddled all along the shore of Lower Pauness. The campsite across from me looks overgrown and sad. Several groups have checked it out, and all moved on. The rest of the shoreline was lovely, rocky outcrops interspersed with jack and white pine, birch, balsam, spruce, and a few more clumps of that oak. When I got back to camp there was a huge shed snakeskin in the canoe garage- pretty sure it wasn't there when we left.

Sat in the shade for awhile, then got up because 2 eagles were having some sort of altercation in the air right off camp. I noticed that Amelia was staring very intently into the grass. I went to see what it was....and there was the snake, staring right back at her, calm as could be. Made her go lie down away from the snake, and it slowly slithered out onto the hot rocks and sunned itself for a while. easily as long as my arm, a nice garter.

Well, I knew it had to happen.....all of a sudden one of the knuckles on my left hand started to itch like crazy- got really red and looked like it was going to blister. Poison Ivy, Yay! Got the Dawn out and went back in the woods and scrubbed the living daylights out of both hands. Is it on Amelia's life jacket? The canoe? A random piece of driftwood? All I know is it's a real small scale exposure, or I'd have way more than one small itchy spot. "You're gonna need an ocean, of calamine lotion"

It's a lovely, calm, warm evening. Amelia is snoozing in a late afternoon sunbeam, there's little puffy clouds sailing by and wispy layered clouds above those. Has a feeling of rain coming tomorrow. Sitting by the fire listening to frogs and watching the beaver move around the lake.

I'm as ready to go back as I ever will be.