July 21st, 2019
We woke up to the faint but visceral smell of forest-fire and a slight hint of haze. We decided to eat breakfast on the water and make some miles. As the sun rose, the extent of the haze became more apparent; not terrible but clearly impeding visibility. After about an hour we ran into Mike Ranta and Steve again. They offered us some coffee and we said goodbye one last time. We spent the morning paddling into the haze as the temperature quickly rose. By 9:00 AM the horseflies were out and worse than ever. The sediment in the water made swimming undesirable, and eventually many of us decided to drink the water without filtering it. The haze cleared up by mid-day but we were all resigned to sweat and swat horseflies all afternoon. Made 54 miles and camped at 4:30 PM on a grassy knoll.
-Zach