Trip log - Cedar to Radiant: Canada Day - Day 3

Today dawned totally gorgeous. It's always nice out when you're going home. We would spend the day travelling, so I was fine with having good weather. We had discussed our strategy the night before and set 8 a.m. as the wake-up call. I didn't have to convince L.T. to get up, he was up before me. I waited until the last minute before 8 to get up as well.

Someone's cottage or camper in the distance

Mouth of the Petawawa River where we were heading (mid photo)

Breakfast was blueberry pancakes with bacon and maple syrup. I think I've finally figured out a system to mix the batter, blueberries and warm water. I use one of my Food Saver bags and vacuum seal it, leaving a large space to fold the bag over multiple times at the top, clamp it with my windshield bulldog clamps. We squeeze the ready pancake mixture out of a small opening in the pointed end I've created with the vacuum sealer. Now that I have that long silicone spoon, no more messy hands!

We had skipped lunch yesterday, so we decided to make it this morning and put it in our Thermoses to eat on the route. I had also brought bacon and pepperoni to go into the Kraft Dinner. We were able to get most of the pot into the two Thermoses, but had to throw a bit out.

It takes a while to set up camp and a while to tear it down. The hammocks need to come down. The bug shelter is last. I had decided that my fanny pack was NOT going to be used today, I was going to stuff every last item I could into my backpack including the empty fanny pack. The only things that would be attached to my backpack on portaging was my life jacket and camera bag. I stuffed my snack bag and my one liter bottle into the side pockets of my backpack. I only filled one of my bottles, the other one would be empty. One kilogram less of weight!

Just when I thought my backpack was stuffed to the max, I realized I had to still fold up my chair and put that in my bag. Dang! My backpack has a really cool feature. It has a front zipper in a U-shape. If I lie it on its back, I can open up the front like a suitcase and jam more stuff in that way. I got the chair in. I was carrying the garbage (which I normally don't do), but I balked at the little backpack it was in. L.T. had some black plastic construction-weight garbage bags in there and they were heavy!

It was 11:35 by the time we launched. Radiant Lake wasn't horribly choppy, but it wasn't flat either. And the wind was blowing directly in our faces. It took about 35 minutes to get to the mouth of the Petawawa River. We were going upstream today and it was moving faster than it looked. The first part of the river is a long paddle and with each twist of the river, the wind would blow at us again. I was anxious about today. I had had such a rough time on Saturday. And today we were going uphill and against the current of the Petawawa. We knocked off the first portage and my confidence built a little bit. We did single carries all day. Some of the wet spots had dried, but not all!

The next portage with the big mud swampy section in the middle, well, I had decided at our first portage that my feet were getting wet, so I had stood in the river holding the canoe at the bottom of the train bridge. They were already wet, so I could walk in the muddy section. I used my trekking poles to ensure there was some rock below the mud and water before stepping and that worked fine. I would not attempt to find a route around this again!

On that second portage we came across a blue canoe bag three-quarters of the way up the trail. I could hear someone in the woods to my left, between me and the river. There had been no indication that someone else was on this portage, no canoe or kayak when we started our walk. When we got to the end, there was no boat either. I guess this person was either trying to do some of these Category IV rapids or was lining their boat, not an easy feat. Actually he probably had started doing the rapids and changed his mind. He would have to haul his craft through a bushwhack up the steep sides of the gorge. Yikes!

We got that portage done, then we came to the final one of the day and the longest. But it's not really the toughest. Although to start you need to walk along the edge of the bank which is high with loose gravel rocks. It would be nothing to slip and you'd fall the whole distance into the rapids. Hardly a tree to impede your plunge into the rapids. Not a pleasant outcome. I was extra careful on all portages today. Slipping could mean hurting myself badly and I have no idea how L.T. would get me out of there. The bugs would be happy though to keep me company.

The trail gets a bit nicer as you get to the end near Cedar Lake. We walked by the first campsite, then came around the corner to the campsite right on the lake. There was a small creature there, he kind of looked like a fuzzy beaver or ground hog with a fuzzy tail. He didn't look like an adult, maybe a young adult? He was dark brown with a bit of black. I surprised him and he started to go around me until L.T. came into view. Then he just froze. We didn't try to approach him, we just stopped and let him run away. 

We dropped our gear and took a break to eat lunch. I walked into the lake and got completely wet. It was mostly to cool down. The wind blowing off Cedar Lake would dry me out before I got back to the access point. The KD in the Thermoses was good. After eating that and drinking, we headed out to conquer the big lake that is Cedar. L.T. plotted a route that would bring us behind one of the big islands to give us a break from the wind and waves. But for the most part we had to battle them. They were enough to pick up the front of the canoe and slam it down into troughs that were probably 1.5 to 2 feet below the crest of the waves. At times I had only air to paddle.

It was a long, tiring trip to paddle across Cedar. No matter how far you thought you'd progressed, when you checked the shoreline, it looked like nothing. But progress we did. Then Cedar had her ultimate revenge on us. We paddled into the small bay at the access point. It was suddenly calm. Yeah, because we're in a bay. NO, the whole damned lake was like glass all of a sudden!

Oh well, we had made it safe and sound. There was a group of people picnicking on the beach. I had full intention of getting out of the canoe and just lying on my back on the beach when we arrived. But I didn't want to embarrass L.T. My lower back was killing me from the paddle across Cedar. Instead I just got the gear ready to pack into the car.

By the time we loaded up the car, got the canoe on, and L.T. changed into clean clothes, it was 6:30. 7 hours from when we had launched from our campsite.

On the way home we needed to get gas and the requisite fries from the chip truck. We had to drive into downtown Deep River as we were too late for Freddies on the highway. I had a small poutine, that I ended up sharing and L.T. had a bacon cheeseburger. We got to his place at 9:45 p.m. By the time I was home 45 minutes later, I just climbed the 3 flights of stairs leaving that huge bag in the car.

Lessons learned this trip:

1. If I don't want something to get wet, it needs to be in a dry bag or at least a Ziploc bag.

2. I need to wear better shoes on the portages and I need to suck it up and spend the day with wet feet. Part of the reason I wear the Keen sandals is that they are light and I can use them in the campsite, ergo no extra pair of flip flops or camp shoes to carry.

3. We need to pad the times given on Jeff's maps to compensate for my slowness on the portages. 

4. I brought my new Esbit stove (see here for my testing of it). It was easy to pull out and heat the pre-cooked bacon on while either the eggs or pancakes were being made. I used my stove diffuser on it at first, but it didn't really blacken much without the diffuser. 

5. I should probably carry a maximum of between 35-40 pounds on my back.

6. I hate fanny packs. I can't get my backpack hip belt to work properly while also wearing a fanny pack.

7. I can't wear my new rain poncho under my backpack (I might be able to wear it over, which would be better as it'd keep my bag dry.

8. L.T. will never play cribbage with me. Although the board worked great as a place to put the mosquito coils (yes, plural).

9. I can climb up much better when fully loaded using my trekking poles than I can going down.

10. July 1st is too buggy.

11. After July 1st it's warm enough to go in the lake (or river).

12. Deer flies can bite through thick wool socks. On my trip back on Monday I put Watkins cream on my bare feet, put on my socks, then sprayed them with Watkins bug spray. That helped a bit.

13. I need to get back to exercising on a more regular basis, including weights.

14. I would only do this route again if I was carrying 25 pounds and had guaranteed nice, sunny weather! (Ain't gonna happen!)

Timetable                                   Day 1                                      Day 2

Trip log - Cedar to Radiant: Canada Day - Day 1

We were prepared for the bugs. Did you know you can get a camping weather report that also gives you a bug report? Here's what it looks like:

For our weekend it was showing red for black flies and mosquitoes and green for deer flies. Preparation included carrying multiple bottles of Watkins bug repellent. We both carry a pump spray bottle and the cream (which I think is more effective). L.T. had a new spray he was trying out that was less toxic. I brought a new box of mosquito coils. And I carried the Thermocell with 2 butane cartridges and 4 of the strips. We both had bug hats, I wore mine pretty much the whole weekend, except inside the bug shelter and my hammock.

Conclusion? We're still both covered in bites. And the deer flies were out. I would have rated them just at the bottom of high activity. They will follow you out of a portage and join you in the canoe, sticking with you for the full paddle. I was wearing thick wool socks with my Keen sandals and they can very easily bite through wool, my ankles are the witness.

We've taken the mid-June trip off our schedule this year because of the intensity of the bugs. The Canada Day trip might go the same way.

As mentioned in the timetable post, we set off on our drive, got our permit, got to the access point, loaded the canoe and set off at 10:30 a.m. We had a long paddle down Cedar Lake. 

Today's route in purple (Jeff's maps)

Access point at Brent

Not a sunny day, but calm

We made good time going across the lake to the first portage point at the southeast part of the lake. We landed around noon. The lake was kind to us and wasn't very choppy. There wasn't really much of a breeze. The weather was ominous though. The forecast had said rain would start around 10 and by 2 we'd be having thunderstorms. 

First portage, beginning

It's also a campsite

Easy landing

Deceptively nice beginning

The first portage goes around the Petawawa River rapids called Cedar Lake Rapids. It's a nice landing; there are two campsites at this portage end and they're not bad if you don't mind some through traffic. The second one is particularly nice and looks out over the waterfalls (although I didn't take the time to have a close look). The first portage isn't too bad. It starts off quite nicely, there's one boardwalk over a creek, then it does get hilly and rocky. The Petawawa River is mostly in a gorge. The sides are steep and rocky, which makes for portages that involve going up and down with lots of rocks and some pretty steep put-ins and take-outs.

The portage is 960 meters and puts in below the last of the rapids. The sides of the river are high here and a couple of streams gush into the river. It's hard to see them though, the mouths seem to be protected by trees. The current is pretty strong if you chose not to paddle too heartily, you'd eventually get pushed to the next portage take-out. We did paddle though. The water was really dark today, the dark skies contributed to that. 

Petawawa River

Looking ahead

Looking back

After paddling about 1.5 km we were at the start of the next portage, 685 meters going around Surprise Rapids. Taking a rest on the portage with the bugs so furious isn't much fun. I was finding my bag a bit heavy so L.T. suggested we double-carry this portage. For the first trip I carried my fanny pack and the lunch backpack. It was an up-and-down portage, rocky, and shortly after the starting point, there was a muddy, swampy section about 5 paces across. For our first trip through, I bushwhacked around it, still getting my feet wet. Ick. We got to the end, it's a campsite. A really bad campsite. But I'm sure it's there to help people that aren't making good time and really need to stop and just stay somewhere for the night. It's a big rock with maybe only one flat grassy spot about the size of a pup tent. 

We dropped what we were carrying and retraced our steps. Again I did a loop through the undergrowth to go around the water on the trail. I picked up my backpack, fit my hands into my trekking poles, and started the final trip on this path. My poles have a harness on them where my hands fit and they are velcroed in. When we got to the wet section, I tried my circuitous route and as I ducked under a fallen tree, my backpack got stuck. I tried to wiggle lower and lower then fell onto the log below on my stomach, both of my trekking poles collapsed into half their size in front of me while getting wedged into the muck below. One forearm also ended up in the mud. L.T. had to come over and help me out. With both hands locked into the poles I had no ability to extricate myself.

It had started raining too. This was a miserable portage. As we got to the end, thunder and lightning could be heard. We decided to wait it out a bit then the skies opened and it just poured for 15 minutes. We were both drenched completely through right to underwear. Finally L.T. wedged the canoe into a Y in a tree and we stood underneath that. We were getting a bit concerned about the time, so we set off while some thunder was still rumbling in the distance. At least the rain had stopped. We had eaten some of our lunch during this wait. One bonus of torrential rain, the bugs weren't able to fly around.

There's not a very far paddle to the next portage, probably half a kilometer. A train bridge comes into view and a stoney path up the side of the hill leading to the train bridge is visible. The real portage is about 50 meters further. We took the train bridge route. It's a serious straight-up scramble. This portage goes around Devil's Chute Rapids. And there's a section at the end called "Five Man Grave". I was very glad we were going around this section of the river!

Looking across the bridge

The path coming up to the track

Bridge close-up

NOTE: Algonquin Park does not recommend using the rail bed for portaging. 

Waiting for L.T. to join me

L.T. cut me a break and I just climbed up to the rail bed with my life jacket, the lunch and my poles. He brought me my pack. He made a second trip to get the rest of the gear and the canoe. I put my backpack on over my brand new rain poncho that has some sort of silicone coating. That was a bit of a disaster. Between the fanny pack flipped around to the front, the big backpack with my life jacket, the lunch bag and my camera bag attached to the back, would not sit properly on my hips. This is important to distribute the weight evenly. My shoulders were taking all the weight instead of my hips and the pack was slipping around a lot. 

The majority of this informal 860 meter portage can be done on the tracks which is much easier than the down and up of the portage. Where that portage crosses the tracks, we had to turn onto it, off the track. But not for very far. 

Put-in at end of last portage

Marker for last portage

Smiling because I don't have to portage anymore today

Once the last portage was done for the day, the rest of it was just paddling. We had about 6-7 more kilometers to paddle and the current was going in our favour. The water in the river was so calm that as we turned a corner into a long, straight section, we had trouble figuring out what we were looking at. For example, a large rock outcropping looked almost like you could paddle under the rock reflection. A large tree root was sticking out of the river as well. From the distance it looked like jawbones of some huge shark.

At least it's not raining

We got out onto Radiant Lake, there are a few cottages at the mouth of the river, lucky folks that have those. There are 5 campsites along the top of the lake, we were hoping for the 3rd site. It was occupied. We decided to go to the 4th site. L.T. had been on the 2nd site on a previous solo trip and he said it was nice. But the 4th site might have a sandy beach, so we pressed on. The 3rd site is probably the best with a real sandy beach. The 4th has a sandy bottom with a pebble-filled beach. Still not bad. We landed around 5:30 p.m.

The site has a lot of straight red pines on it. They don't have a lot of lower branches. The sun was starting to peek out onto the site, there was a good spot to put the bug shelter and lots of trees to hang hammocks. We were home for the next 2 nights! The first thing we did was hang that bug shelter. 

Campsite pines (taken on Sunday)

When I opened my bag I was in for a rude awakening. Everything that was not in a dry bag was wet from the torrential downpour, including my air mattress. Oops! Lesson learned there.

Later on when L.T. was hanging the ropes and pulley for the bear hang, he could hear a fairly consistent peeping noise that he was struggling to identify. He followed the sound until he came to a hole in a tree. Ah, a nest of baby birds of some sort. He backed away and the local woodpecker came in to protect her babies.

Meals today:

Breakfast - L.T. made scrambled eggs, bacon, cheese and grape tomato wraps to eat in the car.

Lunch - L.T. prepared various deli meats, cut up some delicious old white cheddar, and had cut apples with plums and grapes. He also packed some crackers in his Thermos with some brie. But with the rain downpour we skipped that portion.

Dinner - L.T. had brought a fresh steak and veggie meal for tonight, but we were both too tired to go look for wood to burn. Besides with the rain, most of the dead fall would be wet. Instead we had Sunday's dinner which was deep dish pizza with rehydrated veggies, basil and garlic pasta sauce (also rehydrated), bacon, pepperoni and cheese. Dessert was raspberry fruit crisp (rehydrated raspberries, a bit of sugar and granola topping).

After dinner as we were sitting in the bug shelter, a whippoorwill sounded its call as it flew by. The park is recording sightings (or hearings) of that bird to try to get an idea of the population and where they are hanging out. We didn't hear many loons though. 

Today was Canada Day and for our homage to being Canadian: we were out in the Canadian wild and as for wearing the Canadian colours, we were both white-skinned with red bug bites. For fireworks we had fireflies flickering around the campsite. And there were no line-ups anywhere, even for the port-a-potty at the back of our campsite, unless bugs count.

Pictures:

When the going gets rough, the camera stays in its bag. I did take lots of pictures of the campsite on Sunday. Here are a few pictures:

Looking down the Petawawa River

The last 3 photos were taken on Sunday

Timetable                                   Day 2                                      Day 3

Trip log - Cedar to Radiant: Canada Day - Travel Timetable

Every time we take a trip we build on the knowledge from previous trips. But mistakes still get made and judgement might still be off a bit. Or we try something new and it may or may not work for us.

This trip I decided to make a schedule to see how we compare to the recommended times on Jeff's maps. Also L.T. wanted to be on the road by 4:30 a.m. so we could be at the permit office for Brent shortly after 7 a.m. It's a long drive. In order to convince myself this was a great idea getting out of bed at 3 a.m. to start my day, I created the following table:

	Minutes	Minutes	3:00 a.m.	Alarm
Task	Time to do	Done by	Finished by	Time
Get up/get ready	45	45	3.75	3:45
Drive to L.T.'s	15	60	4	4:00
Pack car	30	90	4.5	4:30
Drive to Access Point	165	255	7.25	7:15
Get permit	15	270	7.5	7:30
Drive to launch point	45	315	8.25	8:15
Load canoe	30	345	8.75	8:45
Section 1 complete	90	435	10.25	10:15
Section 2 complete	90	525	11.75	11:45
Section 3 complete	90	615	1.25	1:15
Paddle to site	30	645	1.75	1:45
	645	10.75

In theory we should be on our campsite by 1:45 p.m. without any stops, or rest time, or any other issues. Okay, I'll get out of bed at 3 a.m. if I can be sitting on my butt at a campsite around 2 p.m.

The first slippage happened when packing the car. That took 45 minutes instead of 30. Half an hour down the road L.T. realized we didn't have the paddles or life jackets. I was driving and had to wait until the next exit on the highway to get off and turn around. That added an hour to the trip. 

We lost another half an hour between getting our permit and launching the canoe. We launched at 10:30 instead of 8:45. We made good time crossing Cedar Lake, it was a calm morning on the lake.

We lost more time on the second portage as we decided to double-carry it. As we got to the end of this portage there was thunder and lightning. We waited that out for about 30 minutes. The double-carry probably added another hour.

The third portage was a tricky one. You can get out of the water a bit earlier and scramble up a very steep section to climb onto the rail bed and follow that instead of the portage. I was flagging at this point and L.T. double-carried my pack up to that point for me. Also he double-carried the canoe from the track to the end of this portage. It wasn't a full double-carry, but a partial one.

Here's the final calculation of the slippage in the schedule:

Slippage	Minutes
Packing car	15
Retrieving paddles	60
Loading canoe/permit office	30
2nd portage double-carry	60
Waiting out storm	30
3rd portage partial double-carry	30
Total minutes added	225
Converted to hours	3:45

We landed at our campsite at 5:30 p.m. instead of the 1:45 p.m. I had calculated. But as I mentioned, that time did not account for any rest stops at all. And we certainly weren't going to argue with lightning!

Today's route (Jeff's maps)

Day 1                                    Day 2                                      Day 3

Trip log - Cedar Lake to Mink Lake: June 11 to 14, 2016 - Day 4

Tuesday - Laurel Lake back to Brent access point

It was another peaceful night although it got very, very cold. It probably dropped to 5 or less. I have a mini thermometer and by the time I got up around 7:30, it was reading 7 with full sun on the site. Brrr. I hadn't been cold in my hammock on any night but that was dependent on being in my sleeping bag and liner properly and being on top of my mattress (any wandering limbs would immediately know they were off the mattress). LT was also cozy in his hammock. He had a new air mattress he picked up on Friday from MEC.

This morning's most rousing bird was a woodpecker that I swear was on the same tree my hammock was hung on. He didn't hang around long, just enough to wake us both up.

View from inside my hammock

Fake sleeping for the photo op

Cozy feet

Something both of our campsites on this trip had in common was a latrine that was up a very steep hill. I had to use trekking poles to get to the thunderbox on both sites.

It's up there

Here are some pictures of the bug shelter set-up: 

I used my table as my chair for this trip

LT took my chair for a test drive

The bug shelter screen doesn't impede our view

Breakfast today was dehydrated eggs with red peppers, onions, and dried canned ham. And bacon. I added a mozarella cheese string to mine.

We didn't rush today to pack up. We didn't have too far to go. It would be a leisurely paddle and only a single, flat portage.

The last we see of Laurel Lake

Going from Aura Lee into Little Cedar Lake

Back into Cedar Lake

On our last bit of Little Cedar, we were weaving through some small islands when we surprised what I think was a wolf on one island. I didn't see his head, but I saw from the neck down and at first thought it was a fox, but it was the wrong colour and it didn't have a fluffy fox tail. He was a brindle colour, grey and dark brown. The wrong colour for a coyote as well. We quietly spun the canoe around for a better look, but he'd disappeared along the side of the island. We then heard him splash loudly into the lake as he jumped in trying to get away from us.

Our same lunch spot from Saturday but much nicer weather

What a view down Cedar Lake!

I have never seen this lake so calm

Our car, one other car and the ranger's truck

It took about 4 hours to get home, including the requisite stop for poutine in Deep River. We compared bug bites and LT definitely won for both quantity and size. I would prefer to lose this contest anyways. 

      Day 1                                      Day 2                                  Day 3  

Trip log - Cedar Lake to Mink Lake: June 11 to 14, 2016 - Day 1

Saturday - Brent Access to Little Cauchon Lake

We were off on our second trip of 2016. The first one is usually the long weekend in May and the second one is usually for LT's birthday in June. We went a week early this year because of other things planned the weekend of. So we started off on Saturday, June 11. Yes, in June the bugs are bad. Real bad. But we have a bug shelter and head nets. 

The bugs can get to you when your patience is getting thin. But there's not much you can do to control the weather, which was another factor for this trip.

Here's what the launch looked like and it was an improvement over the pelting rain that we experienced on the 3.5 hour, 300 km trip to get to the access point.

Limited visibility

We had studied the weather forecast all week up until the trip and it was changing hourly, which was strange for a long range forecast. Today, Saturday, it was supposed to be raining and end around 8. We didn't arrive at the access point until later than usual as a couple of things had been forgotten at home and we were trying to find replacements on the drive to Brent. We stopped at the Canadian Tire in Deep River where we got a plastic egg carton.

Success for one item - a plastic egg carton

We stopped at another store to buy the eggs that we'd put into the carton. The other item that was forgotten was LT's sturdy chair, Larry. LT didn't find anything there that suited the need. Larry is pretty irreplaceable.

Larry - who didn't make it this trip

As a last hope we stopped by the outfitters right at Brent on Cedar Lake, but they did not have any travel chairs.

I had arrived at LT's at 6 a.m., we drove off at 6:30, but by the time we launched it was 12:30. This was a late start. The weather was certainly a deterrent to a speedy launch as well.

As we paddled down the lake the weather started to lift a bit. 

Our route for the day was to launch at Brent on Cedar Lake, paddle up to the top of the lake into Little Cedar Lake. The next lake is Aura Lee, there's a short portage into Laurel Lake, another short portage into Little Cauchon Lake and find a campsite along that lake for the night.

We made decent time up Cedar Lake and stopped at the island campsite at the top for our lunch. 

Here's looking at you, kid!

No need to unpack, just lunching

The view back down the lake

Raindrops on pine needles

Lunch was charcuterie, cold meats with cheese, cut up fruit. LT even packed a few crackers in his thermos for the Brie.

Back in the lake and we headed up through Little Cedar Lake, then under the train bridge into Aura Lee. There are a couple of campsites on this lake along the narrow section. But we were heading further along. The portage into Laurel isn't very long, 345 metres according to Jeff's map. It's a flat portage, fairly wide, but the base is mostly round rocks. You need to watch your step, especially when carrying a heavy load. I weighed my bag before leaving and it was 54 pounds with all the dried food and 2 full litre Nalgene bottles.

Laurel is a pretty lake with a high island campsite. I'm sure it sees a lot of traffic. It would be good if the breeze was needed to blow off some of the many bugs that were out right now. As we headed to the 130 metre portage into Little Cauchon there is a pretty waterfall and the weather was giving us a pretty view of that corner of the lake. This is not a long portage, but it's brutal. A big up and over into the next lake.

The next landmark is going underneath the train bridge along the bottom of Little Cauchon Lake.

This is from the other side of the bridge

We started up this fairly long lake, checking out any campsites we came across, mostly along the left side of the lake going up. It was starting to get late. June is good for having a lot of daylight. But that can get you into trouble if you extend yourself past your energy level.

We were very surprised at the amount of permanent structures on this lake. There are quite a few cottages, beachfronts and motorboats here. No one was out and about because the weather wasn't ideal.

We got out at the second-last site, but it wasn't very deep and we couldn't see where we'd be able to set up our bug shelter. So we were stuck with the last site. It wasn't great. We considered pushing on to Cauchon Lake, but it would be quite a paddle into the wind and we'd already travelled about 18 km. I had been up since 4:30 a.m. and it was now 7 p.m. I was done.

We tucked ourselves into this tight site, up against a rock at the bottom of a bay where the wind was whipping into us. The bug shelter went up first, then the hammocks. It took a few tries to get my hammock up. I finally went to sit in the bug shelter as I was defeated and LT hung it for me, right up against the rock. His hammock was a bit further over.

We didn't have dinner, our steak and veggies would wait until tomorrow. It wasn't long until I was in my hammock. The wind was howling so loudly in the pines above me, I was very anxious that the canoe would be flipped over and carried by the wind into the water. I got up and tied it so I could sleep better.

Me against the rock

LT's hammock

The bug shelter

The very safe canoe

      Day 2                                      Day 3                                  Day 4