2015 is turning out to be a fucked up year

That week-end could not end fast enough. Hopefully most of the bad stayed there.

Between washing machine dying, lawn mower parts staying in my hands when I start it, and a slew of other problems, this was a horrible week-end.

Hell... my friends didn't even make it to Lac Vert.   Almost all routes to Lac Vert in the municipalite of Lac Ste Marie, have been damaged. One route  on wooden platform was completely destroyed 2 years ago with a Tornado.. [probably same time frame as the tornado that destroyed the wooden platform of l'ile aux juifs].

Other routes seemed to be either flooded or full of large downed trees.  From my understanding though my friends never made it on to Lac Vert, there is one 2km portage trail that makes it however, their 90lb wooded canoe was too much for that long trek.  THIS IS VERY SUCKY.   Lac vert and that area were part of my friends best camping spots. I had gotten hooked too and was planning another trip there for August.

I dunno what other Gods I've angered other than the canoe Gods. But it would be nice if things started to work out.   This morning other then all the other stuff I have to deal with , I have to call a Maytag repair man as my washing machine DIED on Saturday....in the rinse cycle of my 2nd load. I had 3 loads of laundry to do.

The only good thing to have happened so far in 2015, is I met a new friend in late April, and not on Plenty of Fish.  Not going to say much more except we have a nice time together.

Note: This is the 2000th blog post since 2006.... 

More about the Widerness camping trip Labour Day week-end - Part 3

If you want to find on google maps the spot where we actually camped, this is it.  This is one of two islands on Lac Vert, Last year we camped on the other island next to it.  The spot where we camped seems to be one of the highest points to jump into the lake and seems well known to all those who come to canoe-camp in Lac Vert.

View behind our tents, and where people would come to jump

You can see the beginning of the rainbow

More rainbow on Lac Vert

On the other side, where we landed, there is a jumping rope and a rope to help you climb  back out of the water. So the island is well known for jumping into the lake.

The jumping rope off Tree on island in Lac Vert

The jumping rope is dangling on a tree. you can see several generation of ropes, so it gets repaired when it gets too ratty.  There's a branch near the tree to help you grab the rope so you can use it to swing and jump into the water. My friends did it but I just wasn't feeling it.

The spot with the jumping rope was also a good fishing spot. We got dozens of walleye, also known as dore in French.  Most of which was caught and released. Only 6-8 made it to dinner, fish chowder.

Walleye fish chowder, very yummy

One of the bigger walleyes I caught at dusk and released

One of the many large walleye my friend caught.

After the big storm we had Sunday there was a double rainbow.  We were disappointed though we saw the end of the rainbow there was no pot of gold. Just water!

Teyha looking at the Rainbow :)

Sunset after the massive storm

On our way back to lac des Bagnoles on Monday, we stopped at the entrance to walk the portage trail to Lac Stick.  Was very pretty. The rain from the previous days had made many mushrooms grow

There were lots of these amanita mushrooms

stream between Lac des Bagnoles and lac stick

Lac Stick

Stream going into lac stick

The only disappointment, is while we did see a few dragonflies around lac stick, we did not manage to photograph any. Saturday and Sunday were cloudy and I know dragonflies tend to come out more when it's sunny.

Canoeing solo in my 12ft sportspal

More about the Widerness camping trip Labour Day week-end - Part 2

By the time we packed the canoes back with gear Friday morning, the fog had cleared and it was a beautiful sunny day. We crossed back the bay to the starting point and went back to our cars to add/remove gear for the trip to Lac Vert.  By then we'd seen 2 people arrive with motor boats, probably for  a day of fishing. We'd seen another group of canoe campers, who'd camped across the other bay overnight also gear their canoe up and leave.

Lac des Bagnoles once the fog cleared

My friends canoeing with their dog.

Then we canoed across lake towards a little island, and next to it is a passage that brings you to lac des roches. We were lucky it was not too windy. It was interesting paddling a canoe alone like it was a rowboat.

Me canoeing in Lac des Bagnoles on Friday

I found that if I go solo with this canoe, I have to use the entire back to sit to be able to paddle properly. I have to learn to travel even lighter. The gear was stacked pretty high.

I did ok considering it's the first time I used my canoe solo. But I had a hard time keeping up with my friends. I suspect if I had went a few more times over the summer, I might have kept up better. We canoed along lac roche and took the turn to go towards lac vert. We saw a few more people also canoeing. We stopped to check out one spot. It was ok.. So we moved onwards. I knew we were not going to camp on the same island that we did last year, and it was full of people already anyway as I canoed past it.

At some point I passed by 2 women, and they were like, they it's a woman solo in her canoe! And they were like, that's so cool.  It felt empowering :)

I could see my friend ahead, but there was also another canoe not too far away.  I stopped a few minutes to take the photo of a seagull sitting on a rock in the middle of the water.  and then I could only see one canoe at a distance and it wasn't my friends, no shape of a dog.

I fgured they went around the other side of the island so I turned there and started going around that island.  I heard a loud sploosh and saw that a girl had just jumped off a  15--20  drop rock and as I approached another one jumped.  As I crossed them going to a spot to be able to get out of the water we exchanged pleasantaries and I asked them if they had seen a canoe with a dog. They said no, but they had seen a dog on the island near the jumping point where they were, and the other pointed out it was a dog with a life jacket. 

That had me puzzled, as we had talked going further at the end of the lake.  I kept going , went around the island and around the point I stopped, I needed to relieve myself as well as needed to be out of the sun for a few minutes.  This is when I encountered the water snake.

Water snake in lac vert

Water snake swimming away

It didn't stop me from jumping knee deep into the water, once I figured the spot the snake wanted to hang out in.  After a break I continued going around the island. I remember my friends missing me last year, because they hadn't gone quite far enough around an island. So each time I'd see a new alcove in the shape I'd be hopeful that they had landed there, and then I saw their canoe and their orange tarp put up so I'd spot it from a mile away...

Where they had landed you can't see from the other island or the channel between them, so I'd missed them going there.

Another snake I saw

Where we camped, right behind our tents is the high water jumping point.

Interesting stump

This dead tree broke forming almost a pentagram.

More about the Widerness camping trip Labour Day week-end.

The trip was an adventure. When I got to Hawksbury I stopped at the McEwen on the 17, just down the road from the Canadian Tire and Walmart. I bought worms for the first time.  So when I was paying, the clerk asked me if I wanted a bag, I said no, the worms wouldn't mind. The guy behind me asked "What if they got away". I replied "bah, I'm faster then they are. They aren't going anywhere".

We met up in the Walmart parking lot, between 5:30 & 6pm. We then drove to Lac Ste Marie by the 50, then the 5, and then the 105.  A bit past chemin Ste Marie we take the road to Lac Peminchigan and then drove down that road. At some point my friends stopped, perplexed, as the sign that usually advertises which lakes are available from the road was ripped off and there was a huge "PONT FERME" sign.  Since we both have SUV's we decided to investigate. From my friends memory this had to be the right road.

The road itself compared to when I last used it 2 years ago has deteriorated visibly due to rainfall and erosion. When we got the the bridge, again a huge PONT FERME and "passage interdit". This was a small bridge over a small creek, that techinically we wpould have been able to drive through with our trucks. The bridge had been repaired completely with new wood. We walked across it, all 6foot of it. Jumped across it, and then decided to go one truck at a time. THeir truck has a winch, so if something happened we would have been fine.

In the end the bridge was fine, and like good Quebequois we proceeded on. When we got to the parking lot on the edge of Lac de Bagnoles, we found not only that were was 4-5 vehicles there, but 2 small cars. Not sure how they got down the road, but they did.  There was also a jeep with a trailer holding 8 canoes. Like really? DOwn that road?

What surprised me is that there was also guys from Ontario. I mean I know Quebequois don't listen very well ....

By the time we got our canoe's in the water and packed it was dark. But we were going to camp just across the bay, and we did it using head lamps.  We set up one tent and hunkered down for the night. The next morning we woke up to heavy fog on Lac des Bagnoles. It was really awesome.

Tayha on the edge of Lac des Bagnoles

My friend looked like an elf or tree sprite here

Sun coming up through the fog on Lac des Bagnoles

Loon stretching

Loons meeting in the fog

A sampler from long-week-end trip

Lac des Bagnoles in the fog

Lac Vert

Lac Vert

My biggest Walleye

An even bigger Walleye

After the storm a rainbow

Sunset on Lac Vert

We pack our things and head back home.

I was upset the week was over. I think I could have lived for several weeks enjoying doing nothing or just going to canoe a bit and explore the wilderness. It was too short a full week. Sigh.

Doesn't the dog look thrilled to be canoeing?
Photographer: Nina Haigh

This dragonfly was next to our vehicles as we left

We were camping under the biggest pine tree on the island

You can't tell from this distance where the tent is.

Here you start noticing it.

The tent seen under the pine

Under the big old pine

We go swim in le Reservoir du Poisson blanc

Dog enjoying the canoe ride.

Four of us decided to go on a day trip and went all the way to the Poison blanc reservoir. My friends were not planning on bringing their dog, since it makes it harder to surprise wildlife with a dog, but the dog decided it was coming. They left the dog with their friends but the dog decided to swim to the canoe  :) Apparently the dog likes to ride in the canoe.

Dragonfly at beaver lake

 It was 2 portages. We carried our canoes through the first one, but just walked the 2nd one, which was much longer and through a swamp. We got to paddle through 2 small beaver lakes and walk along the third one since it's too marshy to canoe through. 

At reservoir du Poisson blanc.
Yellow and black dragonfly

The beaver lakes had interesting vegetation and animals. Lots of dragonflies and birds. We tried to get photos of a big blue heron but mine turned out all fuzzy. I did better with the dragonflies both around the beaver lakes and at reservoir du poisson blanc.