We both got away last week with Annie to take a short canoe trip into Algonquin Park. The weather started off brilliantly. It was warm and sunny, the wind was light; our first day was great!
After a late-ish start from Foxwood and some backtracking to the west gate to get a camping permit - we discovered that the permit office at Canoe Lake was closed for the season - we finally dipped our paddles into the water around 12:30pm. While loading up the canoe we met another couple who were also just setting out. Lo and behold we learned that they were both from the lakeshore in Montreal where Rob grew up, they went to the same high school as he did and Rob was in the same class as one of the sisters. Small world!
After 4 or 5 hours of paddling we settled on a campsite on Tom Thompson Lake. Dinner was rice soup and lentils, hot bread with pesto and cheese and a litre of wine. There was even a few slurps of scotch by at least one of us. The evening was cold, however we managed to keep warm.
Despite a forecast of rain showers, we were spared for most of the next day. Our campsite was well set up with firewood and a bed of pine needles under the tent; we did not want to set up a new campsite. So we decided to stay put and do a 5 hour day trip out and back. It wasn't until we returned that it started spitting with rain, but it wasn't enough to spoil the evening. Dinner was veggie chili, lots of it, but hot chocolate and no wine.
On the third day, our last, it rained and we had a rather adventurous trip home via Potter Creek. Had we studied our route a little better in advance we would have avoided that route as water levels were just bordering on being too low. Fortunately, we were going with the current, we weren't packed too heavy and it was our last day so finishing up wet was not a big issue.
The trip was fun and Julia even muttered that it was better than she had expected!
