Just before Thanksgiving my wife M and I saw some nice weather approaching, so decided to make the most of a nice stretch of sunny days sandwiched between October storms. That was the plan anyway.
The day before our departure a freak storm arrived in our neighbourhood and blew down an unhealthy portion of our old maple tree in the front yard. Luckily it just missed our house, but it still did some damage. M spent that day and the next arranging insurance and arborist appointments while I packed up for 7 glorious days of canoe tripping. Er, better make that 6 days. Finally we drove north and spent the first night with family. Okay, 5 days it is then.
The long drive down the logging road was uneventful, until we almost reached our put-in. The final forest track was badly deteriorated and impassable for our minivan, so we sat and thought about the 2-3 km carry to the lake. That didn't take much thinking; we decided to scrub those plans and pick out another pretty little lake amongst the thousands there, and so shorten our trip just a little bit more.
It was well past noon by the time we finally got to a campsite on a small lake all to ourselves.
The winds picked up and started making things interesting. Another site on an opposite shore looked inviting but we decided to just stay put. Only after getting everything set up did we go looking for the thunderbox. What we found was a choice between a rotten dilapidated lidless mess and what you can just make out over M's right shoulder in the distance. A previous camper had lashed two birch logs together to fashion a rustic privy. Unfortunately they'd neglected to dig an actual hole. I made some improvements. The buttery smooth birch was incredibly comfortable though.
Just before the winds swept in we made the most of the sun and lakeside view. Someone was thoughtful enough to have made a table easily large enough for our kitchen kit. But before too long we were under colourful silnylon.
The days were mostly sunny and warm but the winds were sharp and piercing. The temps dropped at night to single digits celsius. For that reason I put up our large tarp for shelter from wind and rain (lots of one and some of the other).
Whenever we weren't huddled behind our circus tent in front of the fire, or reading/napping in our cozy sleeping quarters, we were scrambling and ambling over rocks enjoying the view.
It was a very pretty place to be stuck wind bound.
Another serendipitous stroke of luck had us soaking up the bright full moon at night on this trip. I tried to snap photos at midnight under a beautiful luminous night sky, but failed to catch anything more than white blurs against a black background. Oh well. You'll just have to take my word; we spent a couple hours before bed every night watching the spooky lunar show as it crept through the forest and rose in splendour above the lake.
We would get up in the night for bathroom visits and end up standing in our little clearing gazing up at the moon. It was so bright, even in our tent, that M would sleep with covers over her head to escape the light.
On night 2 rain woke us up with the steady pitter patter drumming on our tent fly. I wasn't the least bit worried; we'd already decided to stay put right where we were. No real travelling on this trip.
I did go out day paddling while M relaxed on the rocks reading.
On the morning of day 3 the winds picked up with a vengeance, causing us to question how far we were willing to whittle down our trip. As beautiful as it all was we decided to shorten the trip even more. We'd remember our secret little lake, and aim to return another time for another wind bound holiday.
A lazy camp tear down and slow motion pack up followed, only interrupted by the view.
Some time later, and by mid-afternoon, we were loaded and leaving, driving a short ways south to spend a Thanksgiving weekend with family. Although the fickle weather had played games with our plans beginning to end, we'd managed to embrace and endure it all; to enjoy what October had given us. And we were thankful.
The day before our departure a freak storm arrived in our neighbourhood and blew down an unhealthy portion of our old maple tree in the front yard. Luckily it just missed our house, but it still did some damage. M spent that day and the next arranging insurance and arborist appointments while I packed up for 7 glorious days of canoe tripping. Er, better make that 6 days. Finally we drove north and spent the first night with family. Okay, 5 days it is then.
The long drive down the logging road was uneventful, until we almost reached our put-in. The final forest track was badly deteriorated and impassable for our minivan, so we sat and thought about the 2-3 km carry to the lake. That didn't take much thinking; we decided to scrub those plans and pick out another pretty little lake amongst the thousands there, and so shorten our trip just a little bit more.
It was well past noon by the time we finally got to a campsite on a small lake all to ourselves.
The winds picked up and started making things interesting. Another site on an opposite shore looked inviting but we decided to just stay put. Only after getting everything set up did we go looking for the thunderbox. What we found was a choice between a rotten dilapidated lidless mess and what you can just make out over M's right shoulder in the distance. A previous camper had lashed two birch logs together to fashion a rustic privy. Unfortunately they'd neglected to dig an actual hole. I made some improvements. The buttery smooth birch was incredibly comfortable though.
Just before the winds swept in we made the most of the sun and lakeside view. Someone was thoughtful enough to have made a table easily large enough for our kitchen kit. But before too long we were under colourful silnylon.
The days were mostly sunny and warm but the winds were sharp and piercing. The temps dropped at night to single digits celsius. For that reason I put up our large tarp for shelter from wind and rain (lots of one and some of the other).
Whenever we weren't huddled behind our circus tent in front of the fire, or reading/napping in our cozy sleeping quarters, we were scrambling and ambling over rocks enjoying the view.
It was a very pretty place to be stuck wind bound.
Another serendipitous stroke of luck had us soaking up the bright full moon at night on this trip. I tried to snap photos at midnight under a beautiful luminous night sky, but failed to catch anything more than white blurs against a black background. Oh well. You'll just have to take my word; we spent a couple hours before bed every night watching the spooky lunar show as it crept through the forest and rose in splendour above the lake.
We would get up in the night for bathroom visits and end up standing in our little clearing gazing up at the moon. It was so bright, even in our tent, that M would sleep with covers over her head to escape the light.
On night 2 rain woke us up with the steady pitter patter drumming on our tent fly. I wasn't the least bit worried; we'd already decided to stay put right where we were. No real travelling on this trip.
I did go out day paddling while M relaxed on the rocks reading.
On the morning of day 3 the winds picked up with a vengeance, causing us to question how far we were willing to whittle down our trip. As beautiful as it all was we decided to shorten the trip even more. We'd remember our secret little lake, and aim to return another time for another wind bound holiday.
A lazy camp tear down and slow motion pack up followed, only interrupted by the view.
Some time later, and by mid-afternoon, we were loaded and leaving, driving a short ways south to spend a Thanksgiving weekend with family. Although the fickle weather had played games with our plans beginning to end, we'd managed to embrace and endure it all; to enjoy what October had given us. And we were thankful.
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