Farewell Lake Huron!

Our last night of camping on Lake Huron was spent in Paradise Valley Campground. After periods of rain and cold winds, we enjoyed unwinding in their whirlpool and upgraded to a wooden cabin for the night to dry out our clothes and equipment. We felt happy to be completing the lake with the longest coastline of all the Canadian Great Lakes but a little sad that we were leaving its shores.

The next morning, the winds were fairly calm and we headed for Sarnia and the headwaters of the St. Clair River. As we paddled toward the Bluewater Bridge, we could see some concerned faces watching us head toward the swift current under the bridge. Although most motorized boats don't slow down for our canoe, one small boat containing eight passengers slowed to almost a halt just as we were passing through the current. After reading the sign on our canoe, 'Great Lakes Expedition', the group started to clap and cheer us on under the bridge. Wow, their gesture made us feel like we had crossed some imaginary finish line.

The Black Mask

In our first two summers of paddling the Great Lakes, we had very few problems with animals trying to get into our food barrels. We never had to hang our food barrels in trees and would often leave them in the canoe far away from the tent. The odd squirrel or seagull would beg us for little bits of trail mix but both these animals couldn't open our food caches. This year, while paddling into more populated areas, we have been surprised to encounter one cute animal that has, with their tiny fingers, opened the latch of our canoe barrels. While dozing off to sleep one night at Point Farms Provincial Park, we heard a loud bang as one of our barrels rolled off the picnic table onto the ground. We stumbled out of the tent and to find that a large raccoon had managed to open the latch but was struggling to get the lid off. Knowing that we would get little sleep if we left them there, we hung our barrels for the first time in 135 nights of camping.

The Joy of Being in the Bow

On our last windbound day at Sauble Beach we were fortunate to have our friends Dave and Jessie take us to their home in Owen Sound. It was nice to have a change of scenery, great company and lots of delicious food.

After being windbound for four days, we were very anxious to get back onto the water. The wind had subsided, and although we could see still breaking waves crashing onto the beach, we didn't think they would be a problem. As we started to paddle through the surf zone, I quickly realised we were wrong as a large wave hit me with full force breaking over the top of my head. I could feel the power of the wave against my body as I tightly gripped onto my paddle. Before I could compose myself, another crashed into my face burying me again. As I came out of a third wave absolutely soaked, I noticed that we were safely out of the surf zone. Oh, the joy of being in the bow! Jon, meanwhile, kept dry in the stern. Our canoe had taken on a fair quantity of water so I readily began pumping out the water to help keep us afloat. Jon dumped out the snack bucket and used it as a bailer which left granola bars floating all over. I thought the worst was over when I heard from the stern of the canoe, "I'm seasick! Can we go back to shore?"