If I wasn’t such a slave to truth I would never admit it, but I was roused from my honey-heavy dew of slumber by the voice of Jerry at Telaquana on the radio. I am, you see, rather more capable than the average fellow of sloth. I remained in bed for a few moments wondering how 9:00 am could sneak up so promptly after one goes to sleep. I pulled myself out of bed, called in the weather, and wondered how the receptionist at headquarters can be so chipper at this hour. Ten minutes later Leon flew over in the 207 and was calling me on the radio. It seems he wanted to chat a bit. What a busy day! You know what they say about Park Service volunteers: We do more before 9:15 am than we do for the whole rest of the day.

I took advantage of the clear sky and absolutely still lake to make some photographs and was visited around lunchtime by a father and son pair who flew in with Madura Air to stay at windsong for the night. They took the skiff across the lake to see Dick’s cabin. Neither of them knew much about the cabin, nor had they seen the documentary, so I gave the full tour.

Upon leaving, they said, “It takes a special kind of person to stay our here that long” and paused to hear any last bit of rugged wilderness wisdom I might offer for them to take back to the lower forty-eight.

“Yup,” I said. They stared at me for a moment, perhaps admiring my gift of tongues.

My activities for the day included a hike to teetering rock and a paddle down the south side of the lake towards the connecting stream. Both seemed to be rain-inducing. It seemed such an odd coincedence that an otherwise nice day was marred with rain only when I left the vicinity of the cabin that I considered the possibility of hiring myself out to draught-stricken areas of the world. Just put my boots on, set me on my way and the casements of heaven are sure to open. One other activity that engaged my attention was a head-over-heels fall from a slippery rock into the lake. This did not induce rain. It did result in some choice comments, which are not printable here; lets just say they departed significantly from the Queen’s English.