Trip log - Grand Lake: May 20 to 22, 2016 - Day 3

We were both up fairly early even though we were staying until lunch at this campsite. We needed to eat breakfast before 9 a.m. so we could fit both meals in. Tough day! We took it easy, steeping several cups of tea before, during and after breakfast. Today it was blueberry pancakes with pre-cooked bacon and bacon flavoured maple syrup. LT did a great job of frying the pancakes. I put warmish water in the ziploc bag with the pancake/blueberry mix and let it rise for 15-20 minutes. Another delicious meal!

Bug shelter set-up for meals

This is a long weekend and is pretty much the first weekend campers head out into the backcountry. Fishing season opened up for pickerel on Friday, there were a lot of fishermen out on the lakes. Motorboats are allowed on this lake and we saw a lot more than usual. 

The traffic had started late Friday afternoon. There were some canoes as well, but it was mostly motorboats. There's only one easy access lake with 2 campsites past our site at the top of the lake and I'm pretty sure there were two groups that went in on Friday. A motorboat came up to our spot around 6, it turned around and went across the bay and landed. It turned out that this group basically squatted on land that is not a campsite. They were quite noisy, the motorboat driver often yelled at the kid/kids, there was a lot of wood chopping and motorboat comings and goings. There was also a canoe on the shore. 

At 7:30 this morning a Canada goose was in the water right in front of where these people were squatting. He started to honk and cry and honk for about half an hour solid. It couldn't happen to nicer people! We got a bit of a chuckle out of that.

Yummy pancakes

We compared sore muscles and I was a bit worse for wear. Sore triceps and my legs were achy as well.

After breakfast we packed up the hammocks. The bugs were bad. I pretty much was wearing my witch's bug hat anytime I wasn't in the bug shelter. (And yes, that means on the whole hike yesterday too.)

We relaxed, enjoyed being where we were, then had lunch. It was KD prepared with pre-cut bacon flavoured pepperettes. LT cooked this meal too, nice to be spoiled! 

After lunch, we completed the take-down of the campsite, packed the canoe and moved off on a leisurely pace for the 12 km paddle down the lake. We started off by crossing the lake to check out a campsite we'd never been to. It was across the lake near the first one we thought we would be taking. It doesn't look like a good campsite either on paper or when staring at it from across the lake. Marshy. That usually means more bugs. However we landed at the site and LT got out to walk around it. It had a lot of potential and in the future, we just might use this one.

We made it under the train bridge without any difficulty. Of course, we were now going with the flow and the flow wasn't that strong. We just had to make sure not to hit any rocks. I noticed a lot more rocks overall on this trip, probably because the water level is lower. There were a few times I was surprised by how close we came to a rock in the middle of the lake with no land around.

We crossed the lake again to check out another campsite on our right. It wasn't so nice, from our viewpoint in the canoe.

Before we knew it, we were landing at the access point. It was busy considering it wasn't really the day people would normally be leaving. There was a pickup truck blocking any access for LT to bring the car down. But by the time we unloaded the canoe, they had finally ended their chat around a picnic table and driven off. Meanwhile two canoes landed with younger people (no gear) in them, and on the lake about 8 more were coming in. There already were about 4 canoes on the shore, probably rentals people had brought back. It was crowded. It doesn't take us long to pack up the car and we were headed out of the park again. This trip seems to have flown by.

Epilogue:
Each trip we forget something. At least we're getting better at not forgetting something essential. This trip we left behind tent pegs. We don't need them for the hammocks, but the bug shelter uses them. LT did a very effective substitution with twigs. Such a good one, that they held steadfast during the wind that blew up late Saturday afternoon. And we forgot sunscreen. I didn't pack it as I would be mostly covered up without sunshine hitting any part of my body (huge bug hat, gloves when paddling). LT did burn his hands. As we were driving out of the park we were both wishing that we'd made it a 4-day trip!

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