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I got up about 06:30 after a somewhat uncomfortable sleep on the lumpy ground. Nevertheless I seemed to get enough rest
and felt much better after the over exposure to the sun yesterday. I sat by the lake, made coffee and then tried
something new for breakfast: bannock, a bread simply made from flour, water, baking powder, and salt. I added a bunch
of wild blueberries while I was kneading the dough. I then cooked small loaves in a frying pan with a lid, turning
over occasionally until they were cooked. Quite tasty to have some hot bread in the morning. The blueberries really
did not add much flavour... just seemed to turn the dough purple. It started a light rain as we packed up and paddled
off towards the first portage, although the rain did not last long. Three short portages brought us to Greenwater Lake.
These, once again were very rough, narrow, overgrown, and muddy. I once again sunk up to my knees in a mudhole and had
to put the canoe down to extricate myself. On the last of these portages I pulled a muscle in my shoulder while lifting
the canoe. Fortunately I am travelling with an osteopath, so Katja gave me a massage and it felt a little better. As
we paddled across Greenwater, the pain was quite severe and I began to get a little worried that I would not be able to
continue. However, I found on the next portage that carrying the boat was less painful than paddling so we continued.
Two portages brought us to Skull Lake. The poorly marked trail forked twice. For reference, turn right at the first
fork and the second fork does not matter, as both rejoin near the end. The left route seemed to be less muddy however.
After a quick snack we paddled for about 20 minutes across Skull Lake and came to the last portage of the day. A 2.5
km narrow trail through dense overgrown bush. At times it felt like I was bushwacking with a canoe. I began to curse
the weight of this boat, which I suspect is around 65 pounds, and the length, which for sure is longer than 16'. After
several rest stops we made it to Mendelssohn Lake just as a thunderstorm was growling overhead. We decided to try to
beat it to the campsite about 1 km away, so paddled off. The campsite is really nice, with a rocky fire pit area amidst
some cedars and a couple of open tent areas a short distance away on the lake shore. There is also a perfect tree to
hang the food bag from. We quickly set up the tent and errected a tarp so we could eat lunch out of the rain. The
storm seemed to have died and was simply just a light rain. The sun came out later in the afternoon so we spent the
time relaxing. My shoulder, while still hurting seems to be much better. Dinner was Thai noodles and then I lit a fire
so I could bake another loaf of bread. This time I wrapped a large loaf in foil and put it next to the coals to slowly
bake it. We will see how it turned out tomorrow when we eat it for lunch.
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