Day 3 - Rest Day

Aug 13, 2008 - At dawn, there was an incredible thunderstorm, with lots of lightening and LOUD thunder. It was raining heavily too. Thank God it stopped just as the tent was started to get wet from the water coming in thru the seams! The first photo is of Clark, Jada & Evangeline(photo taken from Michelle's camera)


I don't think kids felt it but all the adults were stiff and sore from the 'adventure' we had the day before. We all decided to just stay at the same site and relax for the day. There were lots of eating, napping and fishing. Andrew & Jerrold took Kieran & Nathan fishing in a canoe. They caught quite a lot of fish!
Check out kieran's BIG BASS in the pic(photo courtesy of the O'Donnells). Actually, you can't quite see it. Oh well, it was BIG!

Day 2 - Adventure Day!

Aug 12, 2008. Mostly taken from the log book of Jerrold Wen - We had a nice relaxing start today.The sun is out and everyone is in good spirits. The first portage at Buzzard Lake works out nicely- even tho some were worried about the '540km' sign posted posted. (I mentioned it was only about 200m), We double backed for the giant hockey bag full of food. Christian & Abbie take turns sterning as we paddle across Buzzard.

THe portage to Vixen is well marked and an easy 400m(150?). We stop to fish and eat lunch at the entry to Vixen. I warn ppl that the portage to Vixen may not be as nice and may be a but of an adventure as I have not done before (except in the winter which is quite different). I try to find a path thru the W. arm of Vixen, but it's not very passable. Instead, we paddle tot he end of Vixen to look for the S. portage. Three's a short 20m carry over before we find the barely marked beginning of the portage into Stoplog. It's a very overgrown rough trek. The trail is hard to follow sometimes, but there are markings of an ATV trail and rock cairns along the way. We have to trek around 3 marshy areas - tho the kids were shuttled across the the second which was deep enough to paddle in. Lots of signs of BEARS everywhere - massive bear scat right in the middle of the trail and Abbie saw saw big baw prints in the mud. Jerrold
had a hard time locating the rest of the portage before finally finding the overgrown wide path down into Stoplog. He had to go back to find his canoe from a totally different path. Andrew saw Jerrold a couple of times but never the 'missing' canoe. I still laugh when i think about it!

It was dark before we manage to get all the gear to a nice rocky site near the SW end of Stoplog. The kids were cheering us in - amazing considering what they accomplished! Within an hr, camp was set up, dinner eaten and the exhausted kids in bed and asleep!

Michelle fed the fire all night with leaves and twigs and wood. It was nice to have someone around to keep the fire going... ;)

Day 1 - Family Canoe Trip in the Kawartha Lakes

Aug 11, 2008. It was a rainy start at Long Lake. Still, we saw clear blue sky and even a rainbow, while we sat under the drizzling rain cloud! We decided to stay on high traffic Long Lake(3rd site on the North side before the Buzzard portage) the first night.

An excerpt from Jerrold's log book. "The paddling started out in a light sun shower with a rainbow behind us. It was the first canoe trip for many of the group - an ambitious 5 day trip thru the Kawartha Lakes. We started late (6pm) because John & I had 3 hr drive over from Awenda. There is a nice ridge behind the site to view the almost full moon and starry night sky. The kids got a nice fire going even tho everything is soaking wet.

Summer '08 - Awenda II

All the kids played really well together and I'm so glad I don't have to keep an eye on the boys anymore. They were running around in the forest, playing ManHunt w/ Kieran and Nicholas. Evangeline tagged along and even Elyssa started joining! It was Anna Maria's first time camping and I think she had a good time. Hope she comes back out next year! That's Anna Maria in the green jacket. There were so many new campers this year: Kristen, Tiffany, and the Twins. What a great turnout! They will be professional campers in '09 for sure! Thanks to the O'Donnells for both pics.

Summer '08 - Awenda

What a Summer! It flew by so quick, I hardly had time to breathe! July was a blur and in August, we bought a house! Then we went camping for 9 days! Now camping is worth remembering! Aug 9-11, we went to Awenda and met up with the Hathways, who were there from the previous night. Weather was cool and drizzling, you know the type that gets you damp but not fully soaked! The Siu Clan were camping at Awenda as well, but they were a 3 minute walk away from our sites.