Trip Log - Kiosk Loop: August 23 to 27, 2018 - Day 4

At 6:30 a.m. the sky just opened and it poured rain. There was no rush to get up this morning so I could wait out the rain. It did eventually stop. I was still starving from the night before and knew that even though all the food was hung high in the trees behind our site, L.T. had a Cliff bar in his fanny pack under the tarp. I crawled out of the hammock and consumed that post haste.

Attempt to dry things

The wind had shifted overnight so an adjustment to the tarps was needed.

Today was a rest day. Everything could be done in a leisurely fashion. That included breakfast. Blueberry pancakes with butter and real maple syrup. We had the last serving of bacon as well.

The sun played peekaboo and there was enough wind to help dry out some of the items that got wet yesterday and overnight. We set up a couple of clotheslines and I got my sleeping bag and mattress out of my hammock. 

We hadn't seen any humans in the last 24 hours. Around 9:30 this morning a canoe went up the lake towards Maple Lake with 2 passengers. The rainy weather had broken up a bit by then.

We didn't wander anywhere today, mostly just around the front of the campsite. I still managed somehow to get 17,746 steps on my Fitbit and 21 flights of stairs.

A scan of the lake showed a tall dead tree to the right of our site with what looked like a majestic eagle perched in it. He was perched there again the next day when we paddled away.

Panoramic view of Erables Lake

At 1 p.m. we had lunch. A Knorr envelope of teriyaki noodles and veggies that I added rehydrated ground beef to.

At 2:30 p.m. I mixed up some cinnamon buns that L.T. fried up in the pan.

Not so round, but oh so delicious!

I had found pizza dough envelopes at the grocery store which I used to make these, as well as the savoury buns from Day 2. It has the yeast pre-mixed into it, much easier than trying to raise yeast in the backcountry.

Dinner was individual pizzas using the 2 leftover soft taco shells. We didn't have the mozzarella cheese strings but we did have a wedge of triple cream brie. I rehydrated the pizza sauce with veggie toppings (mushrooms, zucchini, red peppers). I also had picked up a sliced pepperoni product that was preserved, so it didn't need any refrigeration. It didn't take long to heat up the pizza in the fry pan over the stove. 

Shortly after being handed my pizza, I dropped it, completely face down in the dirt (are you noticing a theme here?). L.T. was cooking his pizza and he kindly offered to share his. We had eaten a lot of food so far today, it was a relief to only eat half a pizza after all.

Dessert was pineapple shortcake. It comprises vanilla pudding, rehydrated pineapple, dried angle food cake and coconut topping.

Later on, to make up for the half pizza serving, we had a few crackers with Welsh cheese. Loblaws is selling a line of Welsh cheese, brand name is Snowdonia. See here for the kind we were eating. Ginger spice, OMG delicious, especially with apple.

Today's task was to eat ALL the food so I didn't have to carry it tomorrow, my ulterior motive. Here's a picture of the food bag as it went into my backpack the next day:

This bag was completely full on Day 1

The sun finally decided to come out for a gorgeous sunset.

At the opposite side of the lake an almost full moon started to rise. It was the most amazing colour, a tangerine-pinkish shade. The sky was a steely dark blue.

Bedtime was around 10 p.m. Tomorrow was a travelling day with 7 portages. 

Day 1                      Day 2                          Day 3                      Day 5

Trip log - Cedar Lake to Catfish Lake: July 30 to Aug. 3, 2014 - Day 3

Day 1               Day 2               Day 4               Day 5

We took it easy today, no rush to get up, no rush to make any meals, no rush to break camp. And I have no pictures to show you! 

It was a gorgeous, perfect, sunny day with great temperatures. We had blueberry pancakes for breakfast with bacon.

Late morning we decided to go on an exploratory paddle. Here's the route we took:

We went down the lake making our way to the peninsula across from Shangri La. We landed at it and took a look around. It's a popular site, lots of "furniture". We got back into the canoe and went around the Shangri La island, but didn't land there.

We went over into the bay, following the shoreline and here is where we saw a momma loon swimming with her chick on her back. We checked out Turtle Rock (very small). It was more like bird poop rock. Then back to the campsite for a nap in the hammock.

One of the nice features of this campsite is the thunderbox. It's the best view I've had so far. It's set up high on the rock, trees behind you, and facing the lake. Anyone going by could see you if you waved at them to grab their attention. Fortunately there's not much traffic.

We did see a fair bit of traffic on this lake while relaxing at our site today. I'm sure there were a couple of disappointed travelers. We would not be paying attention then a voice would ring out, "Nope, there's someone on it." That happened a couple of times.

Dinner was soft tacos with fruit crisp for dessert.

About 7 p.m. a group of 5 canoes went by with some boys and one adult male. Thank goodness it wasn't a party group. As they landed in the fading light at the next spot past us, the leader was calling out orders to people for setting up camp, getting firewood and preparing food. We could hear him pretty clearly. They were pretty quiet after their initial set-up.

The only other significant thing that happened on the island was that as the daylight faded, the mice got braver and braver. They were taking runs at the bug tent and throwing themselves against it. I'm not sure if they were trying to get in or trying to climb over it. All I know is that it freaked me out and LT thought it was pretty funny. The mice were grey so very hard to discern in the light we did have. I was startled so badly, I tipped my tripod chair over and fell, landing on the fuel bottle for my stove and breaking the pump.