Our third canoe trip was a six-day one out of Moose Lake to Knife, Eddy, etc.  1974.  It started out on a drizzly day, and when we pushed off at the entry point landing I moved just wrong and pulled a muscle in my neck/shoulder.  Sharp pain!  In those days we didn't carry any pain killers except one of those little tins of 12 aspirin tablets.

It rained for the first five days non-stop.  Sometimes heavy, most of the time just gloomy skies and drizzle.  I was in severe pain from the shoulder the entire time.  We moved camp every day and eventually no matter how we tried, EVERYTHING was either damp or wet.  The family mantra "there is no such thing as a little bit damp" came from that trip.  By day five my sleeping bag was "damp" and both of our blowup air mattresses were flat.  Cool June weather, no tarp, no camp stools, and everything damp.  And solid pain for me.  The last night I slept on the tent floor wrapped in a space blanket because that was warmer than my damp bag.

Only two things saved that trip in my memory.  Meeting Dorothy Molter on the Isle of Pines and signing her book, enjoying a root beer.  And the last morning when the sun came out and a duck with a group of darling ducklings visited our campsite landing.

I have often said that if that had been our first trip, there would not have been a couple dozen more.  But I had seen the canoe country in the sunshine, and I was able to persevere through six days with hope for a sunny day always in my mind.   

I tend to remember the good times and the bad ones fade into the background.  However, the "rainy trip" doesn't have too many fond memories.  That is also when we decided, if possible, to take longer trips so that there was a more reasonable hope for at least some nice weather.