Hindsight is 20/20...

What do you get when you mix a huge storm, a northern lake and two city people?

A lot of cussing.

This past weekend we (Steve, Jessica and I) headed up to Kingsmere lake to go to Grey Owls cabin. I thought that it would be great because this trip is a really easy going introduction to canoeing. Unfortunately my companions didn’t think so.

When we got up to the lake via the river it was a perfect day to paddle. The water was glass and it was overcast. Other than a lot of whining (I should have brought some wine gums…) it was a picture perfect day, for me at least. It was a bit too much for Steve and Jessica who hadn’t really done any canoeing (which is totally justified). The progression of cussing was hilarious, the climax was after we had paddled up the lake about 15 km up to where we thought the hiking trail started only to find a sign that said “Grey Owls' Cabin ->”. We thought that we would have to canoe further down the lake to find our trail... again. To say that Jessica was pissed would be an understatement. We had been on the river and the lake all day and she shouted in to the bush “Where the F*** is Grey Owls' cabin!!!” and another golden quote that followed was “ What a jack ass, living so far away from everything!” and it only got better when we were on our 7 km hike through the bush to the cabin.

I think that the mosquitoes knew that Jessica was fresh meat from BC. We walked single file through the bush on our hike and every time I turned around there was literally a flock of mosquitoes around Jessica and Steve. I had a grand total of three bites by the end of the trip, none of which itched, but Jessica looked like the Hunchback of Notre Dame. She is still covered in bites, so much so that she is all red. I don’t get it, they just wouldn’t bite me, but she had four coats of Deep Woods OFF but it didn’t help.

Now we get to the interesting part of the story. On Saturday when we were supposed to come home a big wind storm came up with three foot waves. So we just hung out most of the day and they slept in while I had a beautiful hike. By the afternoon, the waves went down to a good size that we could handle. I’ve been on this lake in storms, but never with ‘novices’... So we had the canoe all packed up and tied down and I went over the basic training for canoes one last time before we pushed off from the shore on to the choppy water. Unfortunately, during basic training, Jessica missed the part where you need to sit low in the canoe to lower the center of gravity. Right after she got in to the canoe, as we pushed off, she lost her balance. Of course, as she was falling out of the canoe, trying to hold on, a wave hit our canoe and we were toppled over and capsized. It really sucked to be wet as the sun was going down but I got a few fires started and in no time our clothes were dry and two of the sleeping bags that were damp were zipped together for us to sleep in.

It was so funny to see Steve freak out that he ‘almost died’. We were in three feet of water for goodness sake!! Maybe he will forgive me some day, but I doubt it, he was really scared.

And to top off the whole day I badly bruised my tibia. I was running around trying to start fires for my wet and cold friends and had a but of an incident while chopping the wood. Adding a wound to that situation is not a good thing. Drama Drama Drama

So the next day after a freezing cold and uncomfortable sleep and after not eating for 20 hours we made it back down the lake and the river to our car. And I tell you, the chips that were waiting for us in the car never tasted better.

And now a word from our sponsor... Jessica

When we got home about thirty hours later, we had about an hour to get rid of our deet smell, and scrub off the perma-dirt imbedded in our feet, in order to get ready for a BBQ at Jana's house (this is Jessica writing by the way, in case you hadn't sensed a change in writing style). It was so nice having showered and wearing clothes that didn't smell of campfire, it was definitely one of my favourite parts of the trip.

After eating some delicious burgers, watermelon, and rubarb-apple crisp (so good, and now i know what rubarb is, apparently it is not an ingredient in rootbeer, learn something new everyday), me, Jana, my new friend whom I met on the plane, Mike, and his friend Kirk who owns one of those half-car Smart Car things, anyways we went to the Fringe festival, very cool, and then hung out in the Saskatoon's very own castle. It was a great end to a very eventful and interesting camping trip. Of course, I think I'm gonna take a long break until my next camping excursion. Thanks for a cool Saskatoonese vacation Jana and everyone I met in Stoon, but now as that crazy californian says "I'm out!".