The Canoe Trip - Day 1

I must admit that in the morning, as I prepared to leave my apartment, I was beginning to have reservations about the canoe trip. First, I'd never gone on a solo trip for 5 days before and secondly I had never undertaken a 2.5 km portage by myself, let alone 10 portages in 5 days.

The drive north to the access point on Magnetawan Lake, took about 3 hours and gave me a lot of time to ponder the intelligence of my decision. In the end, it was the lure of the wild that propelled me forward and the journey was officially underway at 1:50 pm Thursday under clear skies, low winds and warm temperatures.

The first portage, a small one, was reached six minutes later and by 2:20 I was paddling through Hambone Lake onto the second portage of the day - also relatively short at 300 meters.

The second portage went well and by 3:10 I was in Ralph Bice Lake and beginning my search for a site to stay for the night. Since this was the first trip of the year I knew I was going to be sore and wanted to get established early so that I could begin to administer liquid medication to those muscles that haven't been used in a year.

I found a nice site by about 5 pm and immediately began to set up the tent, found a suitable spot to hang my pack the required 10 feet off the ground, as well as spend a few minutes properly organizing the medicine table.


By 6 pm, Bob was finally able to relax on the rocks with a cigar and drink in hand. I spent most of the night in this position while watching the southern stars rise (the first star coming out at 9:36 pm). Life couldn't have been better ... little did I know what Day #2 would bring.