Historic Portage Route

Hmmm... a two kilometre portage across the base of Long Point or a seventy kilometre paddle around the tip. Which would you choose? After waking up to throbbing wrists at 5:30 in the morning, the portage sounded a lot better. Besides, it was used for centuries by First Nations people and early European explorers, in order to evade the lengthy paddle and often treacherous waters around Long Point, making it historically significant. Jon, on the other hand, wasn’t convinced. “Come on, it’ll be fun!” “Aren’t you sore?” I asked in an attempt to save my wrists from paddling an extra 70 kilometers. He passed me the pill bottle while swallowing two pain killers himself. “The lake is too calm to pass up this opportunity. Let’s get going!” Whether it was because the medicine started to kick in or that the lake was as flat as glass, my initial reluctance subsided and we were soon paddling past the beautiful fine sand beaches of the UNESCO Long Point Biosphere Reserve.
It was indeed a long point. Each time we approached what we thought was the tip of Long Point, another appeared. It continued like this for awhile until at last we saw the Long Point Lighthouse. We were greeted by employees of the Long Point Bird Observatory where we were given the opportunity to visit nesting boxes of tree swallows. Sarah, one of the ornithology enthusiasts of the point, allowed us to hold the baby tree swallows. As I cupped them in both hands, a big grin appeared on my face. They were so cute. As Jon captured the moment on camera, he couldn’t help but add, “And you wanted to do the portage.”