Mike, Sandra, Jacob and Michael Popik were the other guests at the cottage this weekend, with FB and Will as our terrific hosts. The Popik kids are keen fishermen, and Will took them under his wing, taking them fishing at sunset and showing them how to fillet a fish. It was delicious!
FB had some AR-style exploration planned for Mike, Will, 'Bent and me. We would take two canoes and paddle south on Go Home Lake, then paddle the Musquash River into Musquash Channel on Georgian Bay. We'd keep north, following Freddy Channel west out to Georgian Bay, then we'd make the call on whether conditions were suitable for open canoes to paddle 5K north to Bushby Inlet, which leads into Go Home River and back to the lake. It was the perfect adventure race training session. It involved canoes, kayak paddles, a long distance, rocky portages with overweight canoes, maps, no previous reconnaissance and a little uncertainty. It also involved high fashion, for which adventure racers are well known.
I'd brought our middle canoe seat, and 'Bent and I requested that Will paddle in our canoe so we could spend the day being regaled with stories about FB that he would never tell us himself. :) Will and I took turns in the bow and middle seats, and we all took shifts with canoe and kayak paddles.
The westerners are justifiably proud of their mountains but we Ontarians love our lakes. I've had the experience of living in other countries and provinces for brief periods, and this is what I missed most, other than family and friends. It's hard to express how I felt without sounding corny but our lakes and rivers are part of who I am, and I know many of you feel the same way about the area where you live.
Although it would be fair to say that paddling Ontario's lakes can be a spiritual experience, we were surprised to find an open air church on Freddy Channel near Cognashene. In good weather, it would be a heck of a place for a wedding. There is even an indoor place for the clergy to stand, complete with a sound system - and there's probably room for the bride and groom in there too. There was a service on Sunday at 11 a.m. and it would have been interesting to see how many people come and whether they sit on the rocks or stay in their boats at the dock. There are two pulpits aimed in different directions so either is possible. The sign says that Cognashene Community Church was established in 1906 so we're assuming there was a building at one time, maybe for loggers working in the area.
Will was hilarious as he talked to us about the area. He's doing Wilderness Traverse this year and is eager for hints so a lot of his stories went along the lines of, "We were biking this snowmobile trail over here, and Barb you know the bridge that has the big drop-off..." or "It's a short portage to this lake, and Barb will agree that the falls in there are beautiful."
We made it out to Georgian Bay, and even in an area protected by a few islands, it was clear that a 5K upwind canoe paddle on the open bay was going to be slow and a little nervewracking. So we paddled around Aberdeen Island before heading back the way we came. I love the wild, windswept, "Group of Seven" feeling of Georgian Bay. We've done a fair bit of kayak camping there but some day I want to splurge and rent a cottage on an outer island where we can take our kayaks, swimsuits and stacks of books to read.
The evening light made the paddle home even more beautiful. We were going upstream toward the rapids we had to portage but it wasn't too hard.
'Bent and FB feel most at home with canoes on their heads, and the rest of us didn't want to take that away from them. Luckily, they don't whine (much).
Great day and wonderful to sit out at the big table on the bug-free deck of the "not fancy" cottage enjoying our BBQ dinner and beer as the sun set. (Which was around the same time that we all reached for a 2nd drink instead of pulling out our headlamps for the night trek we'd talked about doing after the FDFs went to bed. Oh well... :) )