Our last day. Very last. Last time to pack up camp.
Last campsite to run around on.
Bags of gear pile up. Keep it all in plastic so it stays as dry as possible! I keep having to sort through things to make sure that there are sweaters and coats available (not buried and unreachable) for everyone. Especially those little tikes who will be sitting and sitting and not warming up.
Into the boats we go. It is raining lightly so we have our jackets on. With the shorter ways to paddle ahead we can gauge how many layers we will want when we get to Opeongo.
It doesn't look like it will be sunny later on today!
Off we paddle to our last portage. It is really three portages because there is an option to paddle a small lake in the middle instead of the middle portage. It woul save you 300 meters. But we trek straight through. The bugs are quite bad by the little lake. Jennifer is not a happy camper. She thought yesterday we'd arrive at home and here she is out in the rain having to lug her backpack. Again. "I want to go home." "That's where we're going...just keep walking and we'll get there sooner." "I don't want to walk. I want to be home now!" (and on and on....) It was about 1.3 km. We are done quickly and we didn't have to double back for anything. Unless you count Jennifer. But don't worry, she wasn't very far back. We could still see or hear her where ever she was!
A landing dock is here. Which means it would be ideal for a water taxi to come pick us up. Wouldn't it be nice if one was already docked there (or just coming up) dropping off people and they were empty and had to go back anyways and couldn't we just go on (for really cheap or maybe even for free) back to the access point? Wouldn't they just offer that out of the goodness of their hearts?
But there is no water taxi. And there are no "big" waves. And we didn't say "if it was raining we'd call the water taxi". So we don't call for help. We load the canoes. Some of us with a heavy hearts. Or maybe it's just one heavy heart. Off we go.
The dark clouds let off a bit of rain. But look! There is a lonely barren island but covered in birds!
Might they be cormorants? What a lot of them! There is life in abundance even in this bleak place...perhaps there is hope we can survive too! Maybe this is a good omen. No, I will not think about it being a sign that we might be abandoned on island with nothing but ourselves for company.
We carry on. I think at about two hours in...when some of our bladders were bursting we took a break. In fact, we barged into someone's campsite. We noted the fire was smoldering. Unattended. We used their thunderbox. With our own toilet paper. And tried leave to traces. As no one is around and it is almost sunny we break here for lunch. "Don't touch!" I say...keeping an eye out for a returning canoe. We eat our crackers and cheese. Which is delicious! Now we have energy to carry on.
Doesn't it look like more of the same? Melanie keeps paddling. What a trooper! She is tired but keeps paddling steadily. We do have to go through some sections where the waves are bigger...but they are manageable.On and on we paddle.
Up ahead we see the final point we need to paddle around. And now the rain is really getting heavy. It had drizzled for at least half an hour, but now it really is going down harder.
After 4.5 hours of paddling we have made it at last. Now on my gravestone, or perhaps in my eulogy, you can put that I paddled Lake Opeongo.
Done. Hopefully never again. Ugh. I am sore.
The rain is not letting up. It is getting worse! The kids are told to stand under the roof to "stay dry". But really it is more like, to "not get more wet".
Unloading the canoe took a while. Everything is drenched. Yuck! Note the empty water taxi docked peacefully. Empty. Why wasn't it at our portage when we came out? Ah well. We made it!
Hooray for dry clothes and dry towels waiting for us in the van! It's hard to change when you are drenched and shivering. But it feels good to be dry. And warm. And in a comfy van seat. Such luxuries await us!
