It rained that night, and Sunday morning was as grey as the day before. Not knowing the true condition of my partners ankle, we decided to stay at Merchant for a day in hopes that his ankle would heal.

We spent a lazy morning, sharing our breakfast with the neighborhood varmints. By late morning, the clouds had lifted enough for us to paddle the lake without ducking our heads.

We quietly circled the lake, and caught glimpses of several birds, including a huge Pileated Woodpecker I had heard earlier that morning. He eschewed my lens, but continuing on, we encountered a pair of Cedar Waxwings and a flock of Mergansers not so modest.

The sun actually broke through briefly by lunch time, so we paused on the east shore for lunch, and to try out the new Kaidan Panoramic tripod head I had purchased. We quickly exhausted that day's share of sunshine, and so continued on, exploring a small waterfall at the 80 meter portage to Chiclane Lake in the Southeast corner of Merchant Lake.

By 2:00, the clouds were furrowing before a great north wind, so we hustled back to camp. By the time we had secured the canoe, paddles and packs, and scrambled into the tent, the wind was sifting the earthbound clouds through the trees and brush. It was like horizontal rain, and I don't remember it stopping until I awoke the next morning. We were certainly glad now of our hasty traverse of Opeongo!