Wawa RV Resort and Campground, Wawa, Ontario, Canada
They will still bear fruit in old age, they will stay fresh and green… Psalm 92:14
Before we headed out, we checked the weather, although I think Blaine just does this out of habit and with a sense of hope. The weather forecast around here is about as accurate as a drunken blind man shooting vegetable cans off the top of a fence.
We were supposed to be partly cloudy, low wind, with sun at noon and a 40% chance of rain starting about 3:00pm. Instead, we received mostly cloudy – heavy dark cloudy – and no rain. There were a couple of times the sun made a brief appearance for a minute or two, but that’s it.
Our goal today was to paddle the Fenton-Treeby canoe loop trail. There are several portages, which we were pretty sure we could manage.
We would have been fine, but for the fact that Blaine pinched a nerve in his neck when he got up this morning. Ouch! He was really suffering, but toughed it out, determined not to sit around in the coach all day.
This is a map of where we’re headed. All the triangles are the path we’re supposed to take.
the dotted lines are the portages.
Ready to go!
We made it to the water. Blaine decided to run back to the jeep for an extra strap.
It was really hard to portage our kayak. Well, not so much for me, being in the front, but for the person in the back (namely Blaine) it’s way more challenging. Not only does he carry extra weight – which he should, being the man and all – but he can’t see where he’s going. And today, he had the added stressor of neck pain. In the beginning, I tried calling out obstacles in the path, but they became too numerous. Unfortunately, that meant he was on his own.
Also, for today, I was only functioning with one-and-a-half hands. My finger is massively swollen from the bite I received yesterday.
We were met with challenges, and overcame them all! I’m so proud of us!
Here he comes!
And off we go!
It’s a bit breezier than we’d anticipated. You can tell by the choppiness of the water already.
A little noisy at first because we’re right beside Highway 17.
The next portage.
Is that a beaver dam or something else?
We’re not sure.
The next portage that will take us to Treeby Lake.
This is where Blaine and I got into the muck!
It ended up on my feet, legs and shorts! Plus a little on my hands.
Blaine just had it on his feet and legs.
Portaging around here is like paddling and hiking combined!
Steep up and down trails full of roots and rocks and pine needles, all of which become more slippery when your feet are wet and you’re only wearing water shoes!
Bracing to carry on.
You wouldn’t believe how hard this picture was to take!
As we were moving, albeit ever so slowly, the camera was having trouble focusing. We’d often glide by before I could capture it.
We made several attempts before I got this one.
Stopped for a banana break.
There were a bunch of empty shells in the water here.
Not sure where they’re from, or what they were.
Blue sky!
Ahhhhh!!! (That’s an angel choir ahh)
Sunshine!
It wasn’t our favorite paddle, and we didn’t complete the loop. We went as far as Treeby Lake, where we scoped out a great lunch spot. It was a lovely island with a camping spot, so it was easy to dock and get to an open area.
This is the campsite.
Nice, huh?
Blaine went to move the boat so it’d be closer to where we actually were.
And we discovered it was covered with blueberries! Joy! We’re both becoming very good berry pickers!
We ended up picking another pint!
Thank goodness we keep plastic bags with us!
The weather started looking – and feeling – a bit dicey, so we began finding our way back. We didn’t feel like we’d miss out on anything, since there was just nothing out here except two loons and one hawk. And a little frog at one of our portage areas.
This was at one of the portage areas.
I’ve not seen this kind of water flower before.
Aren’t these leaves beautiful!
You should really admire these next two pictures.
Blaine risked life and limb to capture it.
After he took the pictures, he took a step back, tripped on a rock, and down he went!
Luckily landing between large rocks instead of on them!
Didn’t help his neck any though.
Thank God for His protection!
There was not a soul around most of the time we were on the water today. The only people we saw was a guy in a kayak just as we were finishing lunch who wanted to ask about our boat, and then just as we were ready to dock the last time and head for the Jeep, there were two couples and a large black dog just getting started.
We were glad to be back!
But now the work continues as we had to clean all the gunk off the boat and our shoes, and our bodies.
The reward?
Dinner at Kinniwabi Pines! No free dessert tonight, but still a wonderful meal!
My dish – –
Spicy Baked Pork Trinidad Style, black-eyed rice (which I learned when it arrived was rice with black-eyed peas in it) and those marvelous veggies.
All was delicious!
Blaine felt a hunger for Chinese tonight and ordered their Oriental Peppered Beef, which came with fried rice and yummy vegetables!
Here’s my swollen finger!
I can’t believe how large it is and how uncomfortable it feels,
a full day-and-a-half later!