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apologize for the earlier absence of photos from this post, which is
now corrected. I hope you enjoy this excursion to the Great (Green) North!
Sooo many photos... soooo little time! Well...
I have just finished unpacking from a fabulous, romantic canoe expedition to
the Georgian Bay area of Northern Ontario. We camped for a week on our
very own private, rugged island and had the time of our lives. There
was only one apocalyptic thunder storm that threatened to wash us off
the face of the earth, and it failed (narrowly). Bugs were only audible
as a general all-pervading hummmm-mmmm-mm between about sunset and midnight. Otherwise, I was in paradise and can't wait to return. Here are a few pics from the 336 we took during the trip. What shutterbugs we are!
As usual, click on any photo to view a larger version.
The Expeditionary Force
Yes, this is the man who can (easily!)
pack an entire lavish wilderness-week-for-two into the middle of a
16-foot canoe. No wonder he looks smug. My hero! He took incredible
care of me. 
In this view, you are peeking out to our island's canoe parking area
from within the cool and leafy depths of the lovely campsite.
Housekeeping
Here is our little home away from home.
Our large cooler kept things frozen until five
days into the trip! It contained, at the bottom, a large amount of dry
ice (yep, that's frozen carbon dioxide). Dave additionally insulated
this with a layer of ziplock bags full of water ice, and covered the
whole with a mat of blue foam. Anything above the foam was
refrigerated; anything below it was in the deep freeze.
Here you can see both food barrels and our cooler ready to hoist far
into the air between two trees. We did this every night to ensure a
bear-free vacation. I am glad to say that it worked!
Here is our nifty-difty ceramic water filter.
We pumped river water
through this, removing all impurities. The result was instantly fit to
drink! Okay, it didn't taste great. It tasted like pine tea, since that
was mostly what it was. So we brought along the Tang. What can I say.
Food
This photograph proves that my husband can bake bread in camp – he
produced two loaves of delicious blueberry bread from within a lidded
wok set over a hot fire.
(Blueberries were available in their bazillions
all over our island.) The loaves were baked in aluminum tins on a thin
bed of sand so as to avoid burning. I was duly impressed.
I countered by grilling two entire Cornish game hens, basted with a
garlic, rosemary and thyme-infused olive oil, serving them with herbed
roast potato wedges and garlic bread. My husband was duly impressed.
Let's face it, we ate like kings. Filet mignon, spicy veggie stir fry,
cheesy polenta with prosciutto in tomato sauce, the list goes on. And I
love how quite nice wines are packed in boxes nowadays! 
Wildlife
I am proud to display this photo of a gorgeous Mourning Cloak butterfly (Nymphalis Antiopa)
perched fetchingly on my paddling gloves.
We couldn’t photograph most
of our encounters with wildlife for fear of frightening the little guys
away, but this beautiful creature was very brave. Or possibly oblivious. Splendid, in either case.
Dave encountered a little six-inch gar pike
in the shallows near the shore one hot afternoon. He was terrorizing a
cloud of tiny minnows that hovered nearby. The pike, that is. Not Dave.
Well, not intentionally, anyway. But maybe. Hmm.
One morning we got up early and found a rocky ledge from which to
survey our domain, mugs of hot tea in hand. A cute little reddish-brown
mink
hesitated only a moment before sauntering right across the rock, under
both our chairs, and proceeding on his morning rounds. He put his
little foot right on my boot! We were tickled all day.
Birds we encountered included a golden eagle, blue heron, turkey vulture, various ducks including a small group of common mergansers, a common loon, and a wee ruby-throated hummingbird who visited our camp at least once every day.
Also, here are the well-known Dusk-Trolling Fishermen, captured using
our amateur telephoto lens (better known as the binoculars).
Below the surface, I'm sure the pickerel were afraid. Very afraid.
Scenery
Brilliant
sunsets (sometimes with encircling rainbows). Rocks. Inspiration.
Peace. Quiet. You could hear birds' wings wuff-wuffing as they flew
overhead.
What can I say. Speechless with sense of wellbeing. Perfect. Going again
soooooon.
Actually -- somebody buy me this nearby cottage so I can go live there permanently!
I'll get caught up with you all soon as I can. Cheers!
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| | Posted 7/24/2006 12:03 AM - 7 views - 29 comments
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So were you anywhere near Lynn Lake? I wanna go up that was in midsummer, for some odd reason. 
