Moosehead, Mooselookmeguntic, La Verendrye

[spider]

Kind of an overview on how the trips shaped up so far this year.

Winter was a bit tough for me so I set my sights for an August/Sept La Verendrye 14 day trip. La Verendrye is north of Montreal/Ottawa. (About 4 hrs from Montreal).

This is my 3rd trip in as many years and the 2nd trip with my wife Marilyn in her tandem, which we love for these kinds of trip. More and more I tend to think of it as a decked canoe and tend to pack accordingly.

So to prepare for this years trip...I rested from Oct to May particularly my arms, this was the 1st year of no winter paddling since I don't remember when...

May finds me doing a 5 day solo trip up in Moosehead Lake Maine.

Sometimes it's easier for me to travel solo and this was one of those times.

I was weak from the extended rest but found that if I indeed traveled in the morning rested in the afternoon and paddle again when the wind settled down I could easily make my destinations.

Mostly I learned..

...that the nice rolled up thing was actually a sleeping pad and not the tent I thought it was.

Camping 5 days without a tent..in Maine in May is doable....

but a head net and a sleeping bag isn't quite the same.

Once I realized my tent was else where I opted to bring the nice thick sleeping pad...60 years old I figure I'll treat myself. Great idea !! Never will I go back to the thin hiking ones.... 40 years with them enough is enough

I re-discovered how comfortable sleeping on a picnic table can really be. I had forgotten over the years but sometimes they are the only level places around...just don't roll over to muuuucccchhhh...!!

It was a nice practice but not quite the wilderness trip I'm always searching for, nice to practice navigation and getting into the routine of it all.

Mooselookmeguntic...also in Maine and also fresh water. We do a 2 night practice camping "shake down" trip .It's a good thing as it turns out to be our only practice trip before the real deal.

I think it was last years trip that we decided we really do enjoy the fresh water trips a bit more. After years of hiking, snowshoeing and winter camping. I am far more a person of the forest rather than a person of the marine environment, though we paddle both of course.

La Verendrye, Cabonga Quebec

I live for these trips it was what got me through the winter

http://fms.ws/9UCcB/47.05649N/76.4086W should link to the area and the daily message we send when on those trips

A portage on the 1st day with a fully loaded boat...we used logs for rollers and kept her fully loaded...nice

Otters to greet our 1st stop of the day....very cool animal we like them a lot.

I pay the price big time for the lack of paddling in the boat. I'm a hurtin unit

"day 3 I'm like "I don't know how many of these trips I have left in me" which translates to Wha ..Wha ..Wha

I would say that was the low point after... the 1st week things improved I got my mojo back and was a happy cruisin guy by the end of the trip.

We made banock the times on the trip we're getting the hang of it...yum yum

....I high count of 75 loons at one gathering...this years bear was smaller than last year..a great viewing it was unaware of us.

....Same with a group of otters slip sliding away as they hustle bustle themselves along they look comically hunched backed

...things that scream in the night....we think a disagreement between some mink if we believe the mornings prints.

...things that go bump in the night...we think hoofed animal..as opposed to "non retractable claws animal"

The water was lower this year so more sandy beaches..we discovered our waterproof birthday suits are still

remarkably water resistant...though may need some ironing before to long....

[gyork]

<p>

...that the nice rolled up thing was actually a sleeping pad and not the tent I thought it was.

My "rolled up thing" years ago was a sleeping bag instead of a tent. 2 day trip was aborted after the first mosquito-ridden sleepless nite! Any pix of the wilderness trip(s)? Hard to find the wilderness these days, though we still yearn for it, don't we?