go to Prologue Day 1 go to Day 2
CONTRAST: Her
Version, His Version
I was reticent to travel from Ottawa to
Achray on Saturday morning, so I reserved a suite of rooms at the Grey Gables Manor bed
and breakfast in Pembroke. I had stayed
there before on a cycling trip and enjoyed it immensely. It is a luxurious splurge. We had a series of rooms, we were booked into
the Library. There was the main room - the library with a
wood burning fireplace, two bedrooms, a bathroom with a big tub, a nice shower,
two sinks and two ornate mirrors that looked great, even though I would have
never selected them myself. There was a
separate bathroom with a toilet and sink.
LT wanted to leave earlier than the breakfast that came with our
room reservation, but I knew it would be delicious. I convinced him to stay long enough to have
breakfast, instead of Tim Horton’s drive through, and asked the proprietor if
we could have it served a half hour earlier.
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| Mirror, mirror on the wall.... |
Our stay at the Manor was sweet luxury, I
knew the next night would be on a bit harder surface with a lot less bathroom
facilities.
Launching
We were a bit later than we planned at the
outfitters to pick up the canoe. Once
the paperwork was filled in and the canoe strapped on, the next step was to get
our park permit at Sand Lake Gate. We
made it to the campground at Achray shortly after 10 a.m. I took pictures of the glassy lake while LT unloaded the car and loaded the canoe to his plan. By the time we set off at 11, the water had
gone from glassy to wavy, but not overly rough.
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| Grand Lake - like glass! |
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| Ruffles starting |
We paddled into the wind towards where we
thought the first portage was. We kept
going, and going, and going, until we got to Carcajou Falls. Oops. We
could hear the falls, but didn’t paddle the extra 20 feet to see them. LT checked the map and realized we had
missed our turnoff into the first portage.
It took us an hour off course by the time we paddled back to the right
spot.
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| Rock with petroglyhs |
The first portage was just a tease at 50 M. However, I was to learn that no matter how long the portage is, the unloading and reloading of the canoe still takes the same amount of time.
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| Very first portage we did together - 50m |
We paddled up a narrows leading into Stratton Lake, passing under one of the many train bridges left behind by CN. I had been warned that Stratton Lake could be a tough paddle if the wind was going the wrong way, but we were blessed today. The weather was amazing, the temperatures warm, the sun was shining, a real late summer date in the autumn.
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| Train bridge |
The paddle down Stratton Lake didn’t take
long. Although LT was a bit nervous
that we had lost some time with our “detour” earlier in the morning. We walked over the 80 M portage, you could basically
see one side from the other. Hey, this
portaging thing is pretty easy!
Right? Riiiiiight.
We steamed down St. Andrew’s Lake without
any problem. The next portage was 550
M. We did a double carry. We were lugging a lot of stuff. You’d think we were out for a week! High Falls Lake was really pretty with
islands. It wasn’t a far paddle then we
were in Ooze Lake after the 300 M portage. I was starting to flag. I can paddle and walk, but add a huge pack
and uneven ground and don’t feed me lunch and I start to act like a cranky 3
year old needing a nap. Ooze Lake was
creepy. It is full of floating
rhizomes. We could easily canoe around
them, it just gives me the willies looking at something that looks like “land”
in the middle of the lake that you know very well you can’t stand on. There were a fair amount of dead trees in the
water too. Fortunately it’s a very small
lake.
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| I'm not sure exactly which lake this is |
The last, longest portage of the
day was ahead and my legs were like rubber.
I think we stuffed a wrap sandwich into our mouths on one of the
portages, but I forget which one. LT had a plan that we would take out his stove and heat up the sandwiches to
melt the cheese, alas, we were conscious of the time so no stove. I also
wasn’t drinking enough water. We were rushing,
worried that we would be at our destination in the dark. We weren’t.
Not even close. It was about 5 p.m.
when we chose a campsite very near the next morning’s portage at the top of the
lake. There is a very famous campsite on
this lake, it is further down, and today it was occupied. Of the seven campsites on the map, three were
occupied tonight. It’s always easier to
tell when it gets dark and the campfires are lit as to how many sites are being
used.
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| Our vista |
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| Our spot |
The campsite was a nice one, I would use it
again. It had enough privacy, especially
for the last weekend in September. There
was a bit of a boggy area on one side, but bugs aren’t much of an issue this
time of year. I put on my bathing suit
bottom with my t-shirt and took a dunk in the lake. I don’t think I’ve ever swam in fresh water
this late in the year. It was a bit
cold, but not by much.
The tent was erected, dinner was
started. My responsibilities were
minimal. I unpacked my brand, spanking
new sleeping bag. I had scooped a silk
bag liner from my son’s European trip stash.
I tossed my clothing bag and my pillow into the tent as well. I had brought my new hiking shoes as well as
running shoes. We had been total
princesses all day, neither of us had gotten wet feet. The dangling hiking boots off the back of my
backpack had been much more of a nuisance than anything else.
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| Evening calm |
Oh, and we had dragged around a full bag of
cut firewood from the Park gate. Yeah,
seriously. Well, I didn’t drag it, but
it was part of "our" burden during portages, one less thing to carry tomorrow
though as LT built a great campfire.
We didn’t have either a hatchet or saw with us, we didn’t make use of
any of the dead wood around us. We had
figured it would pretty much be picked clean by this time of year anyways.
Once it was dark, with the fire down to
embers, I wandered to the shoreline, which was a great smooth, easy sloping
rock. There were millions of stars out. With a slight breeze, the stars reflected on
the surface of the lake were twinkling like crazy. We watched them for a long time. My only disappointment was – no loons! I had been joking that we should ask for our
money back for the campsite, there should be loons on every lake! The next morning, one finally started calling
out from our lake. Perfect!
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