Boldly going where I haven't gone before..day 2

July 29, 2016 - Lac La Peche, Quebec

Preparation                                     Day 1

I slept pretty good. I have to say, I must be more accustomed to hammock sleeping because I found the ground VERY hard. I had borrowed LT's wider air mattress, lending mine to Liz. I also found I was cooler than I expected to be. The temperature probably went down to 15 degrees Celsius. But with all the windows open to the breeze, that probably didn't help. And it was a breezy morning. Breezier than yesterday.

I got up a bit before Liz, probably shortly after 7 a.m. I took the bear bag down.

Easy-peasy!

The lumberjacks buzzed by in their motorboat around 7 a.m. They stopped in our bay, trying to see if we were up and about so they could come ashore and start up their chainsaws. 

I boiled the kettle, making myself a cup of tea. Today's breakfast was blueberry pancakes with butter, maple syrup and pre-cooked bacon.

Nom, nom, nom, nom....

We took our time eating breakfast then it was time to pack up all the gear and get ready to paddle back to the car. Liz and I carefully packed all the bags and did a walk around to ensure we didn't leave anything behind. The canoe was carefully loaded, and Liz got in first. It was pretty easy to get in and out of the canoe with the shallow beachy area we had to work with. 

Meanwhile the lumberjacks had landed nearby and were sharpening their chainsaws to get ready and do some tree cutting. We saw various trees marked for cutting on our campsite with a fluorescent orange X. Also there was another staffer coming ashore with a load of firewood all chopped up and ready to go. It would have been very embarrassing at this point to tip the canoe with all these witnesses!

But we didn't and it only took us 40 minutes to get back to our starting point. It was now 11:10. We strapped the canoe on the car, after Liz took a turn carrying it on her shoulders to the car. Now I was an old pro at crawling under the car to secure the tie-down straps.

I took a quick dip at the beach, there is a day-use beach here, but I was sharing it with a gaggle of Canadian geese. Their feces was all over the place, you had to walk with your head down.

We drove to Masham where we stopped for poutine and pop at Carlo's chip truck. He's got quite the business there. 

Liz was kind enough to help me unload the canoe at LT's place on the way home so that I wouldn't have to drive over there later again today to get his help to take it off after he got home from work.

I have to say, Liz did great for her first canoe camping experience! However, it was a lot of prep and work for just one night. I would probably not do a one-night trip again. By the time Liz is ready for another trip, she'll also be ready for more than one night too.

And this was a very good experience for me where I could show myself that I am able to do many of the tasks that LT does. Well, except hang the bug shelter high enough. Of course there was no portaging on this trip, I'll never match those skills!

Swan? Crane? No, it's Jonathan Livingston Seagull!