Holy Cow!

We were impressed by the abundance of wildlife on Manitoulin Island and became accustomed to daily sightings of bald eagles and sandhill cranes. We observed numerous other mammals such as snowshoe hares, mink, deer and skunk. One morning, while loading our canoe, Jon shouted, “Get out of the water!” Unbeknownst to me, a snake was swimming right next to my foot. Running towards shore, I noticed that the snake had a tight grasp around the back of a fish. The fish put up a big fight and the snake was obviously struggling for his breakfast. We watched in awe as the battle between the snake and the fish continued. It was a close one. In the end, the snake swallowed the fish looking quite satisfied with the catch.
No animal could have prepared us for the shock we were about to experience when we noticed a herd of cows grazing at the waters edge. I asked Jon to paddle us closer while I take out the video camera. While filming, I noticed that one cow was strikingly different from the rest. As it turns out, it wasn’t a cow at all but a large black bull. Protective of the females, he eyed our red canoe. Shutting off the camera, I noticed that he was slowly advancing in our direction. We tried to paddle away but the strong winds and waves had beached us on some rocks. Pushing ourselves off with our paddles, we finally freed the canoe and paddled as fast as we could out of sight. Whew! Wiping the sweat from our foreheads, we were thankful to be paddlers instead of bull fighters.

The Missing Crew Member

As we left Little Current, the wind was strong and luckily in our favor. We waived goodbye to my dad and the Fowler-Taylor family from Waterloo who cheered us on from the public dock. We were pushed swiftly past the swing bridge happy to be back on the water but saddened by our missing crew member, Tess. A few nights before departure, she was experiencing a terrible ear infection that demanded vet attention and an appointment could only be scheduled for later in the week. After discovering poison ivy at every campsite the first four nights, we were relieved that she stayed with her Grandma and Grandpa in Sudbury.