Surprisingly, after a mere 372 days since Britt's last "near-death-by-bear-mauling(-in-her-mind)", we somehow managed to convince her to throw caution to the wind and venture out on the last remaining vestige of technology-free existence, the backcountry camping trip.
We stepped up our game, roaming just a little farther north to Algonquin Park.
Obviously, the extra distance required even more thorough menu discussion, planning and preparation.
Check,
check,
and 7:00 am departure went off without a hitch.
We arrived at the put-in, with the typical fanfare,
and check.
We packed light,
We arrived at the put-in, with the typical fanfare,
Which, I suspect, was more related to the Subway lunch, rather than the pending 90 min canoe/portage/canoe...
We rented a couple small paddles for the kids, Which at $20 for the weekend, amounted to about $2/stroke....totally worth it.
Britt was pleased to discover that the lake we'd booked on included two island sites, which (despite full knowledge that bears can in fact swim) served to allay some of her ursine trepidation.
And, lo and behold wasn't the first site we came upon "Clearly, the best site on the lake."
Any thoughts about perusing the lake for other options, were quickly extinguished, when Britt concluded her recon mission by careening down the rock into the water for a full-on hip-deep double soaker. "You're right, I think this IS the best site on the lake!"
During set-up were greeted by a couple quarrelling pine martens, who first caught our attention by falling 10 metres off the branch of a tree before bounding around the site eyeing us suspiciously from a distance.
Clearly the realism of my photo is far superior to these random shots from the internet, but they perhaps add a little to outline the experience.
Cute little guys!
Once settled, we headed off on a tour of the lake, to find the fabled "jumping rock" of Google-searching lore.
Found it!
'Course we did find an even BIGGER rock on the other side of the island on our return to the site, but the urge to partake was superseded by shivers and growling bellies.
Chicken Souvlaki Wraps (and peace signs), anyone?
Tweening. Hard.
Afterwards, Taz recruited some local help with dish duty,
And, fortunately, still managed to keep all his fingers and toes!
The Jiffy Pop experiment, went well,
Until the bottom of the pan burned through and half the kernels fell into the fire...
If only they'd warned us!
Whoops!
Bedtime!
Saturday was action packed! After a hearty breakfast of scrambled egg sandwiches on baby croissants Taz put me to work clearing all the rocks out of the landing area for the slip and slide, before commandeering the cutting board to complete the attraction.
Wheeeeeeeeee!
Next, Taz led us in a rousing game of Mushroom Bocce.
For those uninitiated: Find a giant mushroom, pick it up with a stick, and take turns tossing it at the locally-sourced rock "pea". If your mushroom breaks, no problem, pick up the biggest chunk and continue on to the next round! Tokyo 2020...er...2021...er...whenever...here we come!!!
In the afternoon, we upped our game and returned to test our mettle on the BIG jumping rock.
Woo-hooooooooo!
Exasperated with not having a suitable staging area for her various meal preparations, Brittster channeled her inner Bob Villa and spent the entire afternoon (along with various bits of string and detritus scavenged from the campsite) crafting a wooden table.
G'dad would be proud!
Just in time for a little taste of home,
The Henry Burger!
Cheese, lettuce, tomato, mayo, crispy onions, jalapeños and (obviously) bacon.
Boom.
A little family euchre,
and our daily "one s'more/person" ration and it was time to call it a night.
Despite, the part when the guys at the campsite across the lake got drunk and spent 2 hrs in the middle of the night dropping F-bombs and threatening to kill each other at the top of their lungs, we slept great!
The torrential rains at 8am added a little stress to the campsite deconstruction, and Britt's table may not have fared so well under the weight of four fully loaded camping backpacks,
But, luckily, the rain died down just in time for the headwind and whitecaps to pick up and threaten to capsize our fully-loaded canoe on the way out....all part of the adventure!
Car, sweet car.
All in all another successful (i.e. not eaten by bears) backcountry excursion!
Britt loved it so much she spent the entire 3hr drive home researching RV and houseboat vacations (read: solid walls and flat beds) to "mix it up a little" for next year. We'll see!
3 comments:
Looks like great fun! So impressed with your camp table, Britt 👍. Nana 😘
Love it! You made my day!!
Looks like you had an excellent time! But I am with team Brit..rv or something with walls.
You guys are such hard core campers! And great wildlife sightings (including bear evasion!)!!! Making your own table! Well done TB.
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