Returned Safely...

Ladies and gentlemen...I did it!! I survived my first canoe trip and amazingly enough...all in one piece!!! We actually had a fabulous time! The weather was perfect, the canoeing was fairly easy and we managed to avoid any dumping of boat/passengers/supplies throughout the entire time!!

We left on Monday morning to a beautifully sunny day and made it to Kinnissis Lake around 1pm ish. The dam was pretty busy with campers returning home and cottagers coming out for the week. Once we got our boat in the water however, we didn't really see too many other people until we returned two days later. Our first portage appeared to have gone well until we discovered that we had actually jumped the gun and put the boat back in a little too early. We figured this out when we suddenly felt the current getting stronger and the sound of rushing water alerted us to the fact that we were about to hit a set of rapids that neither of us could turn back from!!! We held our breath...went for it...got soaked and then took a break so that we could stop and reflect on how terribly reckless and foolish it was of us to not look ahead after the portage!!!! That being said...we didn't make that mistake twice!!


The rest of the trip was terrific! It never fails to amaze me how peaceful the outdoors can be and how refreshing it is to be away from the likes of email and telephones for a few days. Even your food taste better out in the woods!! Though I have to admit that regardless of how much I love it, there is a side of me that can't help but anticipate the return of my bed and a clean bathroom! As the saying goes, you can take the girl out of the city but, you can't take the city out of the girl!!!

I would also like to mention that, as someone who has camped a fair bit at various sites/parks, the campsites on these lakes are, by far, the very best sites that I've ever been to. They are all incredibly private, fairly large and would make a terrific waterfront property!! Our only complaint about the trip was the new system that the township had put into place regarding sites. Up until about four months ago, you didn't have to pay for the use of any sites, however, this also meant that it was basically first come, first serve. During busy times, you could end up sharing a site with others. Recently however, they implemented a charge for the use of the sites, but your site was reserved for your use only.

All this to say that we showed up at our site on Clear Lake on Tuesday night to see that it was occupied by a family of four!!! When we approached them about having reserved the site, they assured us that they had booked it three weeks ago (though we think that they are lying because they look guilty!!!) and had no intention of leaving! Fortunately for us, there were a couple of other sites on the lake that we could use however, in such a situation, what is one to do?? Because all of the booking is done online and there aren't any "park rangers" that you can call to sort out the mix up, what's stopping anyone from taking any site they want and claiming that they booked it. Chances are, if you are like us, you didn't venture out to the great outdoors only to have to share a site with a big family of people that you don't know...hence, you move on to another site...even though that one is rightfully yours! So really, it becomes a battle of honesty out in the forest. An honour system if you will, which works fine most of the time but, I certainly wouldn't want to be there during May 2-4 weekend!!