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On Track

Doug and I are on track this summer. We have been busy every weekend and have been planning ahead! It’s great. Anyway, this past weekend we met up with some old camp friends, Chris and Dianna, to go camping just south of Tobermory at Cyprus Lake. It was a perfect weather weekend and the bugs were non-existent! Doug and Chris seem to inspire great cooking so each meal was fantastic. We learned that anything on a bun needs cheese. Also, who knew you could eat gourmet crepes for breakfast!!? Breakfasts consisted of bacon, eggs, crepes with strawberries… and on the second day we had sausage as well. The bacon was so good that even the vegetarian had some! We had a paddle on the lake (Doug went solo each morning) and hit the candy shop in Tobermory. We always have a great time with them and enjoy Chris’ story telling. Oh… Dianna brought ingredients for Smores… and used Caramilk for the chocolate base… yummm!

Did I Tell You About the Time We Canoed at Firefox 2?

How cool is this?

Continuing the tradition, Firefox 2 will use a pre-release code name taken from a public park. Bon Echo Provincial Park (http://www.ontarioparks.com/english/bone.html) is located in Ontario, Canada. The name literally translates to “good echo”, and reflects how it is our goal echoes that of Firefox 1, once again focusing on improving the browsing experience for our users, making it simple, effective, fast and useful.

Bringing together the absolute best of both worlds!

24 Hours of Absolute Solitude

There’s an interesting website/meme that discusses “dangerous ideas” (ie. an idea you think about (not necessarily one you originated) that is dangerous not because it is assumed to be false, but because it might be true). One of the ideas submitted (scroll down to Leo Chalupa):

My dangerous idea is that what’s needed to attain optimal brain performance — with or without prior brain exercise — is a 24-hour period of absolute solitude. By absolute solitude I mean no verbal interactions of any kind (written or spoken, live or recorded) with another human being. I would venture that a significantly higher proportion of people reading these words have tried skydiving than experienced one day of absolute solitude.

So, my question is - have you had a 24-hour period of absolute solitude? I think I have, though it is possible that even on my solitary canoe excursions, that I ran into or heard someone speak. I fully believe in the value/health of such an idea - I think I’ll try again this spring.

Now what exactly does this have to do with a “dangerous idea”? I should probably finish reading his response before I quote him.

Moose in Algonquin

I survived with nary a scratch! 5 days canoeing in Algonquin - no better way to spend some of the most beautiful days in September. No bears, but I did see mooses (mom and baby):

On Wednesday, I arrived at 12:00, and after 8.5 km (hoping to, and successfully avoiding a bunch of kids) from Canoe Lake, setup camp on Teepee Lake. The day was beautiful and sunny (though really windy!).

Thursday was a day with 11 portages and a total distance of 19.5 km, from Teepee to Fawn to Little Doe to Tom Thompson to Bartlett to Willow to Sunbeam to Treefrog to Jay to Burnt Island. It was pretty cloudy but the perfect temperature - very comfortable for 9 hours of canoeing (8:00-5:00).

Friday was a beautiful morning - and the wind was behind me, so in only 4.5 hours, I went 19.5 km - from Burnt Island to Baby Joe to Little Joe to Canoe. The next 6 hours I spent hiking the Hardwood Lookout trail, viewing the Algonquin Art Gallery (I highly recommend it - the art is amazing… I think I’ll save up a couple thousand dollars to buy one of them), and reading books as I waited for friends to arrive.

Jen and Jamie (our friends who spent the past year in Ethiopia) and Maja (a friend of Jamie’s from teacher’s college) showed up at 6:30, and we canoed through sunset another 7.5 km (27 km total for the day). It got dark and we kept going, under the stars. We found a nice site and setup camp under moonlight. If we did it solo, it would’ve been frighteningly unbearable, but with 3 others we were all able to savour the peacefulness of the night. We’ve each wanted to do some nighttime canoeing, and finally we all got the chance.
I didn’t bring my camera on this part (filled the film on the first three days), so the visual memories are mine alone.
We did a day trip of 23.5 km from Ragged to Big Porcupine to Bonnechere on Saturday, resting on a rocky point we slept after lunch and it was so relaxing. We ate an amazing supper, and sat by the fire into the night.
Today, we had a relatively quick 8 km trip back to the Smoke Lake access point, and were heading home by 1:30 this afternoon.
The total trip was 83 km (47.5 km soloing, 35.5 km with my friends). I’m exhausted, and I’ll sleep like a baby tonight, but the trip was unforgettable.

Some key observations:

Spring is Here!

We took the canoe out today for it’s first voyage of 2005! It was perfect canoeing weather! Long sleeves and pants… not too hot… a warm breeze but not too windy…. and the water was so calm. We dipped our fingers in and we think the water was a few degrees from being ice, but other than that, it was perfect!

Skiing skills under clear skies

This afternoon we went cross country skiing with the skis that Jenn’s parents gave us. We went to Lemoine Point and Jenn did so well, worked hard, hardly complained in spite of blisters on each heel. It was beautiful weather, perfect temperature, clear skies, and not very busy. We miss skiing with our friends who are probably not doing much skiing in Ethiopia. Ah well, next winter. Until then we get to establish our own skiing skills. I’m so happy to have found something to do when I can’t canoe. I could go biking - that’d be fun. And now that the temperature is just barely under zero Celcius, it’s the lovable part of Canadian winters.

Killarney

On our way up to camping we stopped off to visit our old stompin’ grounds and enjoy some good times with friends [both visits were to friends without blogs so there was more to see and talk about with them, and we stopped off to see Luke and Anne ‘cuz they were on the way and we’ve never been to see them before. Sorry Brock - maybe next time]

One visit was to see our good friend Pete and his wife Zorica, and Pete’s ornaments. I think I’ll get some of these babies in my ears - gotta love tunnels:

Then we stayed with Chris and Dianna. Chris is a Lueck (’nuff said) and Dianna is starting physio school next week in London (both of them worked in the kitchen at camp with us). We had a blast, telling stories, laughing uproariously, discussing school fears and confidences, and crashing parties (even attracting police attention - yikes, that was close). We saw all of Chris’ brothers (Jer and Jason are the same but Kinsey is all grown up, sigh):

We took the Chi-cheemaun over in quite windy weather, and we both felt a little nauseous and cold. The drive north, then west, then south, then east (yeah, it was the roundabout scenic route) we nice, but we arrived late at the park. From there it was 5 days of camping, canoeing, and hiking (and avoiding bears and other rascals like other rowdy adult campers, and children). The views, especially at night were great:

One day we took a 10 km hike up a mountain. Jenn was so brave and strong (she didn’t complain at all, and reminded me of this a couple of times). It was steep:

At the top of the mountain we set the camera on timer and I ran over the steep, uneven terrain putting my life in jeopardy - but it made for a nice couple photo:

The small part of Killarney that we discovered was so pretty - next time we’ll have to explore a larger area, too:

One night we got out the camera:

In the morning it was a little foggy. This actually represents what a significant part of our vacation was like - gray but cool and bug-free so at various times we mused that it was perfect weather for camping. We enjoy the evening rain (pitter-pattering on the tent) - the daytime rain was a bit of a downer, but we finished all the books we brought, and I even got to read Cosmo (What Men Wish Women Knew About Sex):

The toilets were especially neat - our friends call them “thunderboxes” as they can rumble when you rumble. They don’t smell near as bad as outhouses or johnny-on-the-spots, and the view can’t be beat (for the toileter, at least):

It was wonderful. When it was all over we were filthy and smelled something terrible, so we got a hotel room in Orillia, showered and swam to clean off, checked out the downtown (bought some amazing squares, discovered a fantastic shop, and had a delicious supper - beer never tasted so good!). The beds, air conditioning, TV (we missed 1/2 of the Olympics!), and a phone call to the parents were all incredible. Then this morning we drove to Barrie for Lick’s burgers, and took the scenic Highway 7 drive home.

Spontaneous Plans

Yesterday morning we woke up in a lull - I did an hour’s worth of work on the computer, and Jenn had slept in. It was a blah beginning so we tried to decide what we wanted out of the day, tossing around the idea of a directionless drive, a visit to Jenn’s parents in Brampton, a canoe trip, a shopping trip, and nothing really inspired.

On a whim and a stroke of creative ingenuity, Jenn checked on the net that Bon Echo Provincial Park had a few sites available for Saturday night. Within 1/2 an hour we were packed up and on our way for a 24 hr camping/canoeing trip in northern Lennox & Addington County.

We set up camp and within 1/2 an hour we were canoeing on Mazinaw Lake. It was quite choppy and we were both feeling a bit nervous, being tossed in the waves (yeah, we even wore our PFDs) and seeing dark clouds ahead. We made it to the first portage point, and it was quite a hike - probably 2 km of fairly level ground, but we weren’t really expecting it. That portage alone made us thankful that we got the 43 lb canoe and not the 60 lb alternative. We then got on this really quaint lake and snacked on cookies, had another short portage to a third lake where this roudy women’s group cackled away (so we cackled back, and it kinda freaked ‘em out). At the third portage (a tiny 20 footer), we set in what looked more like a swamp. We slid over mucky sections, stuck the paddle in 2 foot deep silt, and questioned whether we were on the right track. We crossed a beaver dam, and a beaver ahead led us down the right path. It opened up, and we almost made it through the fourth portage (more of a “lift-over” than a portage, still ending up scratching the canoe). The fifth portage (another tiny one) was no big deal, and then we were back on Mazinaw Lake, where again it was windy but not quite so choppy, that is, until a couple of wakeboarders and their motor boats did circles around us (well, it wasn’t that bad, but we did have some doozy wakes to ride). Eventually we made it back to the camp.

The next day (today) we found out that it was a 21 km route, supposed to take 6 hours - we did it in a little over 4. I was so proud of Jenn - first of all because it was such a good (and adventurous idea) and second because she barely complained (she didn’t like the portage, she was apparently uncomfortable on the choppy sections, she didn’t like being pseudo-lost (or at least not knowing exactly where we were going) and she was a little afraid of the storm - but those are all typical for Jenn) and worked so hard for the full 4 hours. Often she takes a break and I paddle solo for 15+ minutes, but she worked the whole time!

We had a minor little canoe trip this morning, came home (had a delish Dairy Queen blizzard on the way), and went out to a friend’s of Jenn’s house for dinner (yeah, believe it or not there really are nice people out there - and ones I actually like being nice to and being friendly with). My bowels have been complaining crazy (it better not be like this on my vacation - maybe I should get some of that antiviral drop stuff for our water), but the whole weekend turned out way better than I initially thought it would. Yeah for Jenn!

Charleston (and Other Lakes)

Canoeing and skinny dipping go hand in hand:

Here’s Wiggler on (I think) Devils Lake:

For those with a foot fetish, this is Jenn:

Jenn’s photography:


5 guesses what this is (and though it looks phallic, it’s not) hint: it’s edible (bonus 10 points for the official name):

My foot after being visited by the friendly zebra mussels:

Camping

We went camping at Charleston Lake Provincial Park this weekend. We got two evening paddles in and two daytime paddles. We were able to watch a small loon family teach their baby how to catch fish… it was pretty neat. We saw a falcon in it’s nest and a black rat snake! Wasn’t so excited about the snake as it was close to our campsite. They can grow up to 8 feet in length but I think in this part of Ontario they only grow up to about 6 feet. Ick. The lake was clear so we were able to see lots of the underwater life… There were lots of islands, rocks, and lots of fish swimming around too. Anyway, it was a successful canoe weekend. The car camping was a little loud but the perfect canoeing weather made up for it!

Loons

We were out on Buck Lake today when we were going around a small island. Doug pointed out a loon on the island… it was under this little bush and was lying straight out. At first it looked dead but then we saw its head move a little. I’ve never seen a loon out of water and it is passed the time for babies I would think… I guess I will have to do some research to know if they nest at all the rest of the time. Anyone know?