Our Canoe Trip

There is no way I can adequately and completely share our canoe trip experience here. Overall it was a great success and I'm so glad we did it!

First I'll give a brief update on how things went, specifically in regards to the things I was worried about.

-Eating/drinking – Jonah drank his "camping milk" and really enjoyed the purple kool-aid. I'm pretty sure he managed to ingest enough calories in a day, but he didn't exactly have a balanced diet.
-Diapering – Let's just say that Jonah's bum is sore
-Sleeping – Despite our long drive up to Algonquin Park, Jonah didn’t sleep at all in the van. This meant he missed his opportunity to nap, making Friday the first day in his entire life without a daytime nap! That night I lay down with him in his tent and sang songs to him until he fell asleep. When he’s overtired he cries, so he cried a lot and said “stories” quite a few times until he finally listened to “Wheels on the Bus” and fell asleep. He napped both subsequent days in the tent and slept for probably 9-10 hours at night. The last night he managed to sleep through a seriously loud wind, rain, thunder and lightning storm! Overall, not quite enough sleep. But I suppose none of us managed to get enough sleep, so he did OK.
-Jonah DID NOT fall into the water or into the fire!
-Injuries – No serious injuries. Jonah received two bruised knees and one scrape.
-Bugs – No black flies. Some mosquitoes, but not bad. I think Jonah got a total of 3 or 4 bites. I got a dozen or more.
-Weather – was great! No rain until our last night. And that made for a very calm lake for our trip out of the park. Sweet!

Wildlife - Saw loons, seagulls, toads, vultures, fish, chipmunks

Now I'll get to the pics. I'll add some commentary to give you a little more info.



Day One. We started in Magnetawan Lake, had a short portage to Hambone Lake, and another slightly longer portage to Ralph Bice Lake. It's a good thing the portages were fairly short as my backpack weighed 53 pounds!! We found a great campsite beside a sandy beach.

Fire pit with great makeshift table beside it
and surrounding sitting logs.
That's Dave & Jess' tent is in the background
and an extra red tarp in case of rain.

Our tent and Jonah's tent.
I know, can you believe we gave Jonah his own tent?!
Trust me, we heard his EVERY move and sound!

Day Two. We spent the morning canoeing and portaging to David Lake and back. Took these pictures at the shore of David Lake.

Jessica & Dave
(downhere's Road/Merchandise Manager and Production Manager)

Glenn, Jonah and me
The stick in Jonah's hand is a pretend fishing rod

On our portage back to Ralph Bice Lake, we ran into a couple of guys that we had met when we were finding a campsite on Day One. They had just caught three trout and gave us one! Fish for supper! Pictured here are Glenn and Dave "being manly men". Later we also spent the late afternoon on the beach and in the water.

Day Three. Morning naps for everyone! In the afternoon we explored a nearby campsite. Then Dave & Jess took a canoe ride and we hit the beach again.

By evening, Jonah's face and hands were always
unbelievably dirty! This picture doesn't adequately
communicate that.

Here's Jonah smiling after knocking down the house I built.
Jonah also "made" a ladder & slide, had Dave build
him a waterfall, and enjoyed "hiding" in the forest.

And what's a campsite without a drum kit?

Fun in Mommy's and Daddy's tent!
(Actually, Jonah called us "Aunt Sherri" and
"Uncle Glenn" almost the entire time)

Day Three was the night that the rain hit. WOW! Serious wind, rain, thunder and lightning. I can't believe Jonah slept through it all. Thankfully, we all stayed dry. The morning of Day Four was overcast and beautiful. I've never seen a lake so still. Perfect for our trip out. I couldn't believe how well I could see the reflection of Dave & Jess and their canoe in the water as we paddled out.


It only took us an hour and a half to get back to the van. We had a lunch stop at Webers. Jonah only slept for 25 minutes in the van. We were home at 3:30 and Jonah was asleep before 7pm.

Thanks for vacationing with us Dave & Jess! We couldn't have done it without you!