REST DAY, July 13

Beautiful morning. In the afternoon the clouds came in but still nice. My experiment with the bread worked. I made 8 pannican sized loaves, 1/2 plain, 1/2 cinnamon raisin, with margarine melted into them. So good! I boiled the wood for the canoe ribs (birch and spruce) for about 4 hours and then screwed them into place -- they bent into shape ok, but the wood split a little. They stayed in place. I just hope they hold the canoe together for the rest of the trip. Got rid of all the babies (duffels carrying food) except the misc. baby…Clay & Bill passed through, stopping for lunch. Hopefully they’ll get ahead far enough so we don’t see them for a while.

It is so beautiful up here. It’s really hard to appreciate this area as much as it deserves. Right now we’re in the southern channel of the Rupert. Up here at the head of the Rupert, it splits into about 5 main channels creating islands up to 15+ miles across. So, the power & all the water we have been seeing for the past four days has only been a fraction of the river. When we come off the Marten, back onto the Rupert it ought to be huge.

Speaking of Rupert, Rupert the dog is really doing good. He’s a really good dog, great to have along. He gets all the leftovers plus handouts.

Summers up here change me in a way. Just getting up here, away from all society and its restrictions, expectations… gives me a taste of freeness that I really love.