Trip Log: Six Mile Lake Provincial Park - Aug 25-26, 2014

Well it's our last "weekend" of the summer, since our weekends fall on Monday and Tuesday.  We'd hoped to do another interior trip, but Chris and his friends at work start playing hockey early so we only had one night.  Bummer.

Chris and I had stayed a night at Six Mile a few years ago and thought the kids would enjoy it.  It's a pretty little park, and somewhere they've never been.

We arrived around 1pm and immediately remembered why car camping with Biscuit isn't that fun.  He barks unless he's right with us, so while we were setting up the tent, he was not a happy puppy.  But Squatch was.  He'd gotten a hammock for his birthday (which is in winter) and had been eager to try it out all summer.  We kept forgetting to take it along, so he made sure to remind us (repeatedly) this time.

We hadn't booked a site, so we went in, found out what was available, then drove around...looking for a perfect hammock site.  Squatch wasn't happy with the site we picked, which was in the Maple Campground overlooking the pond.  It turned out it had a great spot to hang a hammock right at the pond edge so he could lay back and watch the heron, turtles, ducks and frogs to his hearts content.  The site was fairly large but with a tent pad tucked out of full sight, and when we went to check it out we could see a heron in the pond.  The kids named him Bill.

While the boys got the hammock set up, Bubbie and I started lunch.  The kids had "gourmet Mr. Noodles" while Chris and I had left over soup from dinner the previous night.

After lunch, Chris and Squatch went for a swim (really nice sandy beach according to them) while Bubbie and I took Biscuit for a walk.  It was really hot, and humid, so we weren't really in the mood for hiking.  We checked out some empty sites, made notes on what ones we'd like to stay at another time, then headed back.

We hadn't brought a rope to tie Biscuit up with, and the leash was too short to tie to the picnic table, being only long enough to give him about 3 feet of run.  Chris and Squatch went to an empty site down the road and found a long piece of rope someone had left hanging in a tree.  Squatch got on Chris's shoulders and cut it down.  He was pretty proud of himself.  He's really loving the fact he's got a little pocket knife (also a birthday gift) and spends a lot of time making his own marshmallow stick whenever we camp now.

Supper that night was spaghetti and spice cake I'd made the night before.  After that I tried making popcorn in a pot on the stove.  It sounds simple but I've always had an air popper or we've gotten Jiffy Pop for camping.  This worked out well though, and the kids loved it. While Bubbie and I cleaned up, Squatch and Chris went to fish for a while...can you see a pattern here? To be fair, Squatch had just bought a bunch of lures from the discontinued bin at Sail and wanted to try them out. They didn't have much luck.  Once they got back we had a fire but the wood was kind of wet.  It burned long enough for a few marshmallows,  then we headed to bed.

It kind of figured that the first time we had room to take full sized sleeping bags, it ended up being the only night of camping this summer where we could have used the lighter ones.  It was HOT in the tent all night and so humid.  We opened the windows to get a bit of a breeze and that helped a bit.  We'd also all brought extra sleep clothes.  Long underwear and normal sleep pants, and extra layers of shirts which we didn't need at all.  Figures, right?

Also, it didn't help that Biscuit was wired like crazy.  He started out by chewing on the sleeping bags, then started running back and forth along the length of the tent at full speed, sliding over sleeping bags and crashing into the wall.  The only thing which saved the tent poles from getting broken was the fact there was only a few inches of soil over bedrock, so the pegs popped out, easing the slack on the poles. Crazy dog!  Holy cow.  We got him calmed down and Chris went out and fixed the pegs since without them, the outer sections sag into the middle.

Now if I could get him to leave the etoys at home!

I was so tired, and not at all worried about wildlife after our recent backcountry trips.  The highway noise was like white noise and I was sure I would fall asleep pretty quick.  We could vaguely hear people talking at other sites but there wasn't anyone close by.  Then suddenly I was wide awake and I don't think I slept all night...and for no reason.  I wasn't jumping at every rustle in the bush, I wasn't imagining bears and wolves creeping in close.  I was comfortable, not freezing...I was hot but the breeze was nice.  Very frustrating.

I got up around 4:30am to go to the bathroom then around 6 I could hear thunder and saw the odd flash of lightening.  I ended up going out to bring in the clothes off the drying line and a few minutes later it started to sprinkle.  Chris ran out and brought the hammock in because it would have taken ages to dry if it got soaked.  It ended up pouring like crazy.  There was no wind, and I don't know if there was more thunder because we couldn't hear anything over the sound of rain hitting the tent.  Chris reached down and touched the floor by his head and he was sleeping on a puddle. Thankfully it didn't leak through the floor.  If you patted the floor it felt like patting a waterbed.  We shuffled further towards the other end just incase.

The rain didn't last long.  Bubbie and I got up and took Biscuit for a walk since he was wandering around the tent now, licking everyone.

When we got back, Squatch came out and we made breakfast (well, they got theirs, I drank copious amounts of tea and waited for Chris to wake up.)  Breakfast was oatmeal, the packet variety for the kids and a more healthified version for Chris and I that I swear one day I will get the kids to eat.

The weather report said more storms were coming, so we decided to pack up and not do the hikes.  Bubbie wasn't feeling up to it, having a bit of a sinus headache, and the rising heat, coupled with the humidity made it feel like we were in a sauna.  It was hard to breathe.

Though it was a short trip, I'm glad we got to go out for one more night before the kids start school.  And I'm kind of glad it rained.   Both kids have been afraid to camp if bad weather might be a problem, because of the bad storm we had last year at Achray.  I'm glad they had this, which seemed scary because it was so loud, but in the end wasn't bad, to help them get over their fears.

Wildlife seen:
Blue Heron
Three turtles (can't be sure what kind, they were out in the pond)
hummingbird
bats
ducks (again, they were in the pond and I couldn't see too well to identify what kind)
bull frogs

Day trip: Kawartha Highlands - Wolf to Crab Lake - September 16, 2014

Tuesday, the kids had to be at school early so Chris and I got an early start, hoping we'd get to actually have a more relaxing paddle.  It turned out we got home ten minutes after the bus, and the kids had freaked out a little, but they were fine.

We'd originally planned to paddle down Long lake to Loucks, then to Cox and check out Secret Lake.  Chris decided it was too far (and it would have been) so we then decided on Wolf to Crab.  We'd done this before to do a geocache when the kids were little, and didn't remember much beyond them complaining they were bored in the canoe.  Then we thought maybe we'd paddle around Silent Lake since we have a season's pass for Ontario Parks, but then changed our minds back to Wolf...then thought we could try Anstruther to Copper...so we got to the Anstruther access and the wind was crazy.   No way were we going to paddle that lake in heavy wind again, so we headed back to Wolf.

The paddle was against the wind, but the waves were nowhere near as bad as on Anstruther.  It took us nearly an hour to get to the end of the lake where the portage is...of course we stopped and checked out one of the campsites on Wolf first, and decided it was a nice site, other than the fact there are a fair few cottages on the lake.

The portage to Crab is pretty easy.  Only 140m and mostly flat.  There's rocks and roots to watch for, but nothing too difficult.

We had the wind at our back as we looked for a spot to stop and eat lunch, deciding to go into one of the bays to get a bit of shelter from the wind so our water would boil faster for tea.  I'd planned to make soup, but we realized we didn't have time.  I didn't even get to take any pictures.

While we were eating, we kept hearing what sounded like heavy footsteps in bushes behind us.  It turned out to be acorns falling on a log, but after hearing about two bear attacks in Haliburton in about 2 weeks, I was a little on edge.

We had to paddle hard to get back home, and naturally, once we got back on to Wolf, the wind had stopped gusting so much so we didn't get much help from Mother Nature.   We would have made it home on time, except every car we got behind was going at least 10 under the limit!  With no passing opportunities, we had to wait for them to turn off onto other roads...then we'd get up to speed, and within a minute, come up behind someone else going 70.  It was really frustrating.  Still, a nice day out in the canoe.

Wonderland trip - August 19, 2014

I have a trip log to post from our recent trip to Kingscote Lake in Algonquin, I'm just procrastinating putting the pictures in because my laptops memory is full again.  So I thought I'd share our decidedly non-wilderness trip from yesterday...which has no pictures because I didn't take a camera or even my phone.

Chris and I had bought tickets to Canada's Wonderland at Costco and the plan was to surprise the kids. We got them out of bed and told them there was a big sale on fishing tackle at Bass Pro.  Boy were they excited.  Ever since they got to go all wild in the clearance bins at SAIL last week, it's all they've talked about.  So we get down there, and we point out Leviathan and the mountain.  They start talking about the rides they liked from when we were there in the spring with the school for band/choir.

They had no idea we'd gotten off Highway 400 at the wrong exit to go to Bass Pro.  Even when we were passing signs for "passenger drop off and pick up" for Wonderland, they didn't figure it out.  I kept making comments about how expensive it was, and it's too bad we didn't have extra money this pay check to go.  Then we turn into the entrance and they realize we were actually going in.  Squatch freaked!  He tried to jump up out of his seat and ended up falling back because of his seat belt.  I'm pretty sure he squealed like a little girl.  Bubbie wasn't as excited.  She had fun last time, but Chris kind of pesters her to try coasters she was afraid to try, so she was a little nervous.

I pull out the tickets and admit I'd lied about REALLY needing to buy granola bars a few weeks back for our Kingscote lake trip.  I did buy a few big boxes of bars, but only to hide the tickets.

The place was crazy busy.  I'd have thought August would be a bit quieter, since the CNE had started, but it was insane.  We were there for almost two hours and only managed 2 rides because of the lines.  First we hit Thunder Run, one of our favourites, then Back Lot Stunt Coaster.  Somehow we managed to hit White Water Canyon when the line had died, and got on it fairly quickly (ten minute wait rather than 45) then we went to Splash Works.  The water park hadn't been open when we came in the spring, so the kids hadn't gotten to go.  They'd been there when they were really little with Chris's parents but were too young to do any of the slides.

Not that Bubbie did any slides anyway.  We all did the Lazy River, then Bubbie and I went to the wave pool while Chris and Squatch hit a few slides.  The Black Hole was their favourite.  Unfortunately, after about 15 minutes of sitting in the shallows of the wave pool, they instructed everyone to vacate the water.  I had my suspicions that a kid had pooped in the water...but the lifeguard herding us all behind the green line said it was just a routine cleaning...uh huh.  When they came out with a net, scooped something out, then you could see several spots where the water was clearly being drained out...yeah, it had to be poop.

We decided to do the Lazy river one more time then the boys wanted to do the Bat.  Bubbie and I shared a huge ice cream cookiewich, then watched the show at the big pool near Dragon Fire.  That was pretty incredible.  The diving and trampoline tricks were amazing.

Tired, hungry and ready to head home, we stopped at McDonalds for dollar drinks, and made it home by 7:30.  We didn't get to go on as many rides as we'd have liked, the lines were just too long.  We also didn't get to try out the new Wonder Mountain's Guardian ride, and we all kind of regret that.  The longest line of the day?  Subway!  We stood in line for 45 minutes to get lunch, and it really wasn't worth it.  Should have gotten a hot dog, or brought a lunch.  Even without the wait, the prices were crazy, $12.49 for a footlong Melt.

Wonderland is lots of fun, but going in the summer can feel like kind of a waste of money.  Because of the long wait times for rides, you often feel like you aren't getting your money's worth.  We had talked about getting a season's pass, and we all feel that if we did, we could make shorter trips, get in a few rides or spend a few hours at SplashWorks and not feel like we weren't making it worth the price of admission....plus we'd go in spring and fall more!  Skip school, ride coasters!

I read somewhere that the company that owns Wonderland now is working towards making it an international destination.  Leviathan and Behemoth are two steps towards that goal (big coasters that will attract thrill seekers from around the globe) but considering the crowds already there, I'm thinking if they did that, they'd really have to expand it, total size wise, because it got really hard to just walk at times.  Worse than trying to shop in the mall on Christmas Eve.  It's already the most visited seasonal park in all of North America...

Day Trip: Algonquin Park - Logging Days - July 26, 2014

After four years of trying and failing to make it to the park for Logging Days, we finally got our act together.

As we expected the parking lot was packed, and they had a team of guys directing us to available parking spots.  We chatted with one of them for a minute as somehow Biscuit managed to escape the car.  I had clipped his leash on, and then unclipped his seatbelt from the ring and it popped the leash clip back open.  Chris caught him quickly, and the volunteer asked us about what kind of dog he was (we got this a lot through the day.)

I admit I had been leery of taking Biscuit.  At home when I take him for walks, he doesn't like it when people come up to him, and the trail was really busy.  I had visions of him biting children, nipping people on the butt and getting loose and eating the logger's lunch.  He was actually really good.  He pulled a lot at first because he was excited, but calmed down eventually.  People came up to him and let him sniff their hand and he let them pet him!  I was shocked!  He went a little nutty when other dogs got close, but we kept a good distance and it was okay.

The first demonstration wasn't so much a demonstration as a performance.  We arrived just in time to see the start of the Waikimi Wailers start playing.  It was really cool.  Some of the people in the crowd were singing along, and more and more people were piling into the Camboose so we headed out after a few songs to let more people in.

At the stables, they were giving out free temporary tattoos, and scavenger hunt sheets for the kids.  I'm not sure what the prize was, but the kids had fun looking for the answers.  There were people demonstrating how logs were squared off, how a cadge crib worked, and how the alligator boats worked.  It was really cool.  We've walked this trail many times and though there is information there on the display boards, it was nice to get a more detailed description of what it was like to actually do these things. You really get a new appreciation for just how hard these men worked.   For example, it took a team of 6 men a full day to square a log, and it took 18 men, about 28 hours to haul a boom of logs across Cedar lake using a cadge crib.  The Alligator took about 6 hours and less men, but was only really useful on big lakes, of which there aren't many in Algonquin (comparatively speaking)

Squatch got to try out using a cross cut saw, and brought home his timber cookie home.  A booth further up the trail had people branding them, but the wood was too wet, so they had pieces of lumber there to brand and hand out.  Kids could also try their hand at making rope but the line ups in these two spots was really crazy, so Squatch only did one.

We didn't have time for the Logger's Lunch (and the kids wouldn't have eaten it anyway) but it did look good.  Beans, potatoes, fried bologna, homemade bread and a butter tart.  Next year we will try and get Chris to take the day off so we can come back and have time for lunch...and maybe Biscuit will be better behaved around food by then.  Because we were in a bit of a rush, we had to skip some of the demonstrations too, but like I said...next year...

All in all, this is a really fun and educational day with activities that keep the kids from being bored.  I highly recommend it.  It's also dog friendly.  There were "dog water" stations throughout the trail.  Even though it wasn't super hot out, it was nice to have.  We actually had thought they might make the trail dog free for the event, since there were so many people there.

Some Thoughts on Camping With Dogs

We recently did our first canoe camping trip with Biscuit and while the trip itself was a success, there were a few things we realized were lacking in his training.  Also, it wasn't until after we got home that I started to think of other things that could have gone wrong, and how ill equipped we would have been to deal with them.

If you've read the trip report of our canoe camping adventure in Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands, you may remember Biscuit wouldn't sit still in the canoe.  He bounced back and forth from side to side, attacking the water, pawing at it, and actually, his butt fell out at one point too.  He's not exactly good at "go lie down" at home, so I suppose we shouldn't have been surprised he wouldn't stay still when he was so excited.  Until this changes, I think we'll be doing short trips with the canoe...and I hope and pray none of them will be in turbulent waters like our return was.

When hiking the portage trails, he was pretty much walking on his back legs because he was pulling so hard.  Not only was it nearly impossible to stop him, but it made an already difficult trail even more dangerous for the person holding the leash (me.)  He's pretty good when I take him for walks when it's just us two, but if anyone else is with him, this is how he is.  I think if we go for more walks as a family, especially on hiking trails as opposed to around the neighbourhood, he'll get use to it and calm down.

He was surprisingly good at the campsite.  He didn't wander off, stayed with us except a few times he saw a squirrel or chipmunk.  It was great for him to be able to run off some of his energy but there are some very valid reasons why most parks require dogs to be kept on a leash even in the back country.

BEARS: Many dogs will run towards a bear, barking and then realize "holy crap, that's more than I can handle in a fight." and run back to their owner, inadvertently drawing the bear behind them.  Many people feel taking a dog with them in the back country can be good protection, but in this scenario, the dog is putting your life in greater danger.  We didn't have any kind of bear spray, bear banger or other protection with us.

SKUNKS: I don't know about you, but I really wouldn't want to spend the night with a stinking dog in the tent.  Biscuit likes to roll all over our sleeping bags before settling in the spot he deems most comfortable (usually my pillow) and the thought of him doing that with skunk spray all over him?  Yuck!

PORCUPINES: I've never had to de-quill a dog, but I  watched my parents have to go through it with dogs when I was a kid.  Not fun.  Imagine having to do that 3 days away from your car?  Even the thought of having to paddle back a few hours with Biscuit freaking out, in windy, wavy conditions would make an already arduous paddle even worse.

Another thing to think about is how prone your dog is to eating things.  Biscuit spent half his time rooting through the ashes in the fire pit, so I can only assume there was unburned food/garbage beneath the top layer.  He's also pretty likely to eat berries he finds on bushes and mushrooms.  It's gotten better the last few months, but after spending all spring dealing with the fall out of him eating rabbit poo in the back yard, the last thing I want to be doing is cleaning up doggie diarrhea in the tent.

Speaking of poo...when he's running around, it's hard to keep track of all his messes so they can be cleaned up.  I kind of felt like I had to constantly watch him incase I missed some since I really didn't want to leave it for the next campers to step in.  For some reason, Biscuit goes about ten times as often when we are camping compared to at home.  During a recent trip to Six Mile Lake Provincial Park, Bubbie and I took him for a short walk while Chris and Squatch slept and he went five times!  Thank goodness he didn't go a sixth because my roll of poopy sacks ran out on the fifth one.

I think there needs to be a compromise and in the future, we will let him run when we are able to fully pay attention, but when we are eating or busy with camp chores, he will probably be tied up.  Also, as dusk approaches, I think tying him up would be smart too.

Everyone's dog is different, and this is a topic with a lot of varied opinions.  I get the arguements for keeping a dog on leash in a front country campground.  We've had dogs come close to peeing on our tent, had them rummaging through our food bin, and it's just plain worrisome to have strange dogs run up to your kids when there doesn't seem to be an owner around.  On the other hand, I've seen people leave their dog tied up in camp while they left for the day and the dog barked, got tangled up and nearly strangled and tip over their water on a scorching hot day.

I'd love to hear opinions on this subject, or other things that can be a concern when camping with dogs.

Trip Log: Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park -Head Lake to Fishog Lake - July 11-12, 2014

 The kids first canoe camping trip!  They've been waiting so long for this and were so excited to go.  I on the other hand, kind of dreaded it.  Not because I didn't want to canoe camp, but if you read my last post about the route, and the portage, you'll remember I was nervous about the dog's behaviour in the canoe and on the hilly (cliffy) portage.  I wasn't wrong.  But let's not skip ahead.

One of the Gull Rocks on Head Lake

We arrived at the put in around 1:00 and hauled all our gear down to the water.   Right away, we realized one of our fears wasn't unfounded...fitting all our gear, plus two kids, a dog, and us, in a 14" canoe was a logistical nightmare.  I had the big pack in front of me in the bow, and the Pelican camera case between my knees.  I couldn't really kneel properly.  The tent went under the yoke, Squatch and the kids two packs went right behind me, then the 30L food barrel, Bubbie and Biscuit went in front of Chris.  We have two kind of big, bulky sleep pads, Chris stuffed them in the little space behind the stern seat and used them as a back rest.  Neither of us were comfortable paddling.  Chris had to contort himself with every stroke to avoid bopping Bubbie on the head and I kind of looked like in the movies when a 6'3" man is using the toilets in a preschool...like my knees were up by my ears.  To make things even more interesting, Biscuit was so excited he kept running from side to side, standing on the gunnels and biting the water.  This meant every two seconds we had to adjust our weight to counter balance 40 pounds of hyper dog to keep us from tipping into the middle of the lake.  Surprisingly though, he barely noticed the gulls and terns attacking us as we paddled by the rocks in Head Lake.

Waterfall on Head River

Finally we made it to the river and within minutes, Bubbie had lost her hat and we had to back paddle to get it.  Biscuit decided Lily Pads were the enemy and nearly jumped out of the canoe to bite them as we passed.  Finally we made it to the portage, and as I'd feared, I nearly fell multiple times as the dog dragged me up the hills.  I shouldn't call them hills, because a hill I could have managed.  It was the sections that were more like 6 foot tall rock walls where you had to pick your footing on little ledges that made it interesting.

We made it to our site at 2:30, and thankfully it wasn't taken.  We had picked it out the day before, with a few others as back up choices.  Chris had wanted to pack up the night before and leave super early because he really liked that site and was sure it would be occupied.  (Actually it was a good thing we got there when we did.  Boaters from cottages passed a few times both days we were there and we could hear them say things like "darn there are people there!")

Kitchen set up on our site

The site is pretty damn awesome.  There's a huge clearing near the back where we set up the tent. We brought our big 6 person, 2 room tent which I knew is kind of big to carry over the portage, but Biscuit is prone to pacing in the night...he likes to get a bit of a snuggle with everyone and our 4 person tent is just barely big enough for us...we'd be getting stepped on all night if we'd brought it.  We'll have to use it for other trips because not all sites are going to have such a huge tent pad, but for this one, we took advantage of the luxury.

The fire pit was ridiculously huge.  I think it must have been 5 feet across.  The site had a really nice kitchen area where someone had built a plywood and 2x4 counter with a lower shelf for storage.  Someone had left a chair and some saw horses there.  There was also a wine rack!  Talk about luxury.  I'm guessing fishermen use this area a lot and that's why there's so many improvements.  One site on the lake has a floating dock.  We almost went there because it would have been fun for the kids, but the mosquitoes on that site were pretty bad the day before.

Enjoying the "hot tub" 

The first thing we did is...go for a swim.  It took a few minutes to decide where to swim because there are several possibilities.  There's the shady sandy area where we pulled in the canoe, an area of shallow rock ledges that drops off right at the point (we called this area the hot tub), and on the other side of the point, a rocky area that goes out a few feet then drops off.  They tried them all out while I took pictures.

We had let Biscuit off his leash to see how he would behave.  I was pretty sure he'd take off and I'd spend the whole time there worried about getting him to come back.  It was a big surprise that we didn't have that problem at all.  He ran like a crazed thing over the whole site, but when ever one of us called he came right back.  Once swimming was over with and everyone was cooled off, we set up the tent and broke out the trail mix.  The plan had been to have Kraft Dinner for lunch, but we all decided to just nibble on snacks then have dinner.

Dinner that night was pasta shells with chunky vegetable sauce.  I only have one pot in the mess kit I bring but I decided to use the pot from my old rice cooker as a second pot/bowl.  Its the perfect size, except I need to get Chris to rig up some sort of handle.  I hadn't brought any oven mitt, or work glove and ended up having to use a sock to pick it up.  We ate supper on the rocks looking over the lake.  It was awesome.  Other than one fishing boat we hadn't seen anyone on the lake all day.

Little small mouth bass

While I did dishes, Chris and Sully fished.  We'd only brought Chris's fishing rod but next time will bring the kid's as well.  Chris caught a few small mouth bass, not too big, maybe 6-8 inches.  Sully had a bigger one on the line but it jumped off before he could get it in.  He's completely hooked on fishing now, no pun intended.  Chris lost one of his lures on a log but the next morning was able to get it back. As the sun began to set, the fish began to jump.  Some were good sized fish, others more like minnows.

Chris got a big fire going and the kids (I include Chris in this) toasted marshmallows.  We had brought their Grampa's Fire Forks...which worked well until Bubbie let her stick catch fire and the fire fork fell in the fire.  Biscuit kept trying to steal the sticks while they were toasting marshmallows on them.

Sunset on Fishog Lake

As it got closer to sunset Bubbie tried to film the sun going down but the memory card filled up before the final event.  Chris went to hang the food barrel and the branch he'd gotten all ready with the rope snapped.  By now it was pretty dark in the bush, but he managed to find another tree to hang it in...then the problem became the rope.  Dollar store rope isn't a good choice when hanging 30lbs of stuff in a tree.  The mosquitoes were also really bad.  I sent the kids into the tent with Biscuit while I put out the fire.  The problem with a huge fire pit?  It takes a crap ton of water to make sure the fire is out.  I swear I hauled 10 buckets up and even though I could pick up the logs, there was still a lot of crackling so I got Chris to do a few more once he got the barrel hung.

When we finally got into the tent, we realized we hadn't set up the sleep pads at all, which was not fun to do while the dog was walking all over them.  We got ourselves all sorted out and Bubbie realized she had forgot to pack sleep pants.  We had only brought small sleeping bags (the kids had fleece liners) so I let her wear mine and I slept in shorts.  We were all a little chilly that night.  Not bad, just enough to wish we had another light blanket.

I was thrilled to hear Whip-poor-wills singing!  As a kid, we used to hear these every night we could sleep with our windows open and I hadn't heard them in almost 15 years.  Everyone else was less than thrilled.  They found them annoying and kept asking when they would stop singing.  At one point in the night, there was one right outside the tent.  I could hear it moving around and singing a few feet from my head.  Around 10ish we heard what sounded like waves lapping on shore but there was no breeze and the lake had been like glass.  I got up and looked out the window.  It was two canoes paddling past.  I would not want to be looking for a campsite here in the dark.  There's no signs, you just have to look for evidence of prior use, like a fire pit.  We also had a few fireflies hovering around the tent most of the night.

DAY 2

Biscuit woke me up around 6, I didn't have my watch so I don't know the exact time.  He went out, did his business, then we went back to bed until 9.  Breakfast that morning was instant cookies and cream oatmeal for the kids, with hot chocolate.  Chris and I had a camp version of an oatmeal recipe I make at home.  The original is from the vegan cookbook Oh She Glows and is super yummy.  Chris had coffee and I had tea.  While I cooked and cleaned up, Squatch fished and lost one of Chris's lures.  He quickly got changed and went hunting for it when Chris offered to pay him $5 for the service.

Bubbie and I sat in the "hot tub" after breakfast.  This was the area right at the end of the point where the water was only about 6 inches deep.  When it's sunny, it's nice and warm.  It wasn't really sunny there yet, but it was nice to just sit quietly and watch a boat full of people swim on the opposite shore.  When Chris and I had explored the other day, that rocky ledge was covered in goose poop, so I'm not surprised these people were disappointed not to be able to use our site for their swimming.

Squatch got a lesson in knife safety from Chris so he could try whittling with the little pocket knife he got for his birthday.  He made himself a tiki while chris made a chess piece and a little surf board.  Bubbie and I did a bit of packing up of the things in the tent while they did this.  We had brought enough food for 2 days but weren't sure if we'd stay that long.  The weather was calling for storms on Sunday, and we didn't want to pack up and paddle back in the rain.

We had lunch, the KD we didn't make the day before.  The kids were going to have Mr. Noodles, but the rice bowl pot tipped and spilled half the contents on the counter.   I'd balanced the vital stove on a flat rock, but it wasn't quite big enough.  With no handle to support the pot, it was pretty tippy.  She ate the half cooked noodles anyway.

We decided to just stay the one night, and by 4:06 we were heading back across Fishog Lake.  Since I didn't know when the following day it was supposed to storm, we didn't want to risk it. We were a little more organized on the portage and I ended up just letting Biscuit run free across it.  He'd "attacked" the water so much on the short paddle he had to pee so bad when he got out of the canoe he ended up peeing on his leash.  Once we got to the lake, we saw that the water was a crazy mess of waves and white caps.  We probably should have pulled into the site at the river mouth and waited a few hours in the hopes it would calm down.  We had enough food to stay if we had to, but once we got out onto the water we couldn't turn around without capsizing so we just kept a steady pace, turning into the waves when they got big, but taking advantage of brief lulls to get us more in the direction we needed to go.  It took an extra 45 minutes to paddle than on the way in, but we made it.  Poor Biscuit had to pee so bad he actually settled down for the second half, and the wind kept the gulls from attacking us.

It was quite an adventure and the kids had a blast.  Once we made it to shore safe and sound, everyone was elated (not to mention relieved...especially the dog who leapt out and again peed on his leash.)  We all decided we have to do this again soon...only next time we'll keep the paddle short at least until Biscuit is a little more calm in the canoe.

Day Trip: Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park - July 10, 2014

Chris and I did a pre-camping trip scout of the Fishog Lake campsites.  We put in on Head Lake at the access down the Digby-Laxton boundry road, and paddled across the lake to the Head River.  Head Lake is a fairly big lake, but it was nice and calm for our paddle.  We passed several rocky islands that were home to sea gulls, common terns and cormorants.  The gulls and terns were not happy with us for passing by, and dive bombed us repeatedly until we were well passed.  A few times we came close to getting pooped on, the birds having missed us by mere feet.

Once on the river, we passed a few cottages.  It's a nice little paddle, with no noticeable current to hinder our process.  A few minutes before we saw the water fall which we'd need to portage around, we could hear the rush of water.

The portage is no fun!  It's not marked except by no trespassing signs.  At first we weren't sure if that was where we needed to go, but I'm assuming the signs mean not to go off the trail.  It's a doozy.  It's steep at first, levels out for a little bit, then you climb and descend rocky hills with awkward footing, then go down a fairly steep hill to get to the put in.  The trail forks at the top of the hill, stay to the left for an easier put in.

You paddle a bit more in the river before it opens into Fishog Lake.  Chris and I spent a few hours checking out campsites.  Some were amazing, some were obviously never used as the fire pits were overgrown with grasses and ferns.  Some we couldn't even find.  I have an app that lets me download PDF maps and one of them is a map of Queen Elizabeth II Wildlands Provincial Park.  As we paddle, a blue dot shows up on the map to show our location.  As we went, I was using it to find campsites and more than once we paddled right past one without being able to tell it was a campsite at all.

Fishog is pretty, with lots of rocky cliffs, a mix of hard and soft wood.  When we told my parents where we were thinking of going, I said it was near Norland...their response was a sarcastic "Ooooh! Exciting." In all honestly, I had my doubts about the area even though I'd watched a few youtube videos

The deer and horse flies were pretty bad on some of the sites, and the mosquitoes were brutal on the portage and at few sites as well.  After the portage, on the way back, there was no breeze to shoo them away so we had to deal with swarms of them until we got back out to the lake.

Our thoughts on the area for the next day's camping trip were mixed.  If we could get one of the good sites, it would be wonderful but the paddle, though only a little more than an hour would be difficult with Biscuit if it was anything like our last time taking him in the canoe.  Also, the portage, short and not too crazy, would be utterly nightmarish with him dragging me up and down the hills.  I kept seeing myself sliding down a rocky hill, burdened down with pack and gear.

We debated the whole evening, and by the next morning, still hadn't decided if we were going to go there or find somewhere else.  We really didn't want the kids first time canoe camping to be a painful experience (for any of us.)  In the end, we decided to just go for it.  The trip log and pictures from that trip will be up in the next day or two.