Tom and his cousins are trying to get a family reunion together for next summer, and I've created a blog for them all to share info and get dates settled / things organized - so that's been taking a lot of my computer time. Point being, even tho I've not been blogging HERE, I have been working on blogs! And now, here it is, almost 11:30 PM, and my neck is stiff and I don't want to be sitting here in front of the computer anymore tonight!
But, I know, I owe ya. So, as they say, "A picture is worth a thousand words." Here goes.
On Tuesday, Tom returned home from a long canoe trip with three other guys. They said that it was more of a "portaging trip carrying canoes" than a "canoe trip with portages", though. Ugh. Really, they had HORRIBLE portages! Like, slogging through thigh-high sloughs while carrying either a canoe or (if not the canoe) two packs. They started up in Canada and then came down through the Quetico. I asked Tom how far it was, all tolled, and he didn't know - but estimated between 60 and 100 miles. They were gone six days.Even though one of them is a 2nd generation outfitter, another a lifelong outdoorsman, and yet another an Arctic explorer (plus our very own Trapper Cabin Tommy), do you think ANY of them thought to bring an extra paddle? ( Mind you, they were in such a remote location that they didn't even see a FOOTPRINT until the day they came out.) 'Course not. Fortunately, they packed duct tape.
Here is the Arctic explorer's wife hamming it up for me and displaying his paddle that was broken ON THE FIRST DAY OUT (during some rapids - they "claim")!
When the above photographed lady and I drove to pick the guys up, I snapped a shot of a sight not completely foreign to us up here in da nort' woods . . . but which may be quite the thing for some of you readers to see! A boat had just come in to the landing with a cast iron stove that the owners had removed from their house. A house accessible only by boat, seaplane, or over the ice in the winter! Our guys jumped in to help load it into the truck. The local lumber yards deliver right there, to the boat landing! Then, the owners come in and haul away their lumber by boat or, in the winter, snowmachine!
Finally, the dogs - who'd been lounging at my folks' for the afternoon - HAPPILY greeted Tom when we stopped to pick them up!Okay, that's it. I'm off to bed and my heating pad (we still haven't gotten the furnace fired up, but that's on the docket for this weekend!) where Tom's been snoozing for hours already!
Great post! The pics add so much. You didn't tell your readers what kind of weather the guys had on their trip. Looking at the pic of the four of them with the lake in the background, it looks for all the world like there is snow in them thar hills and the lake looks like it has skim ice on it. (Fortunately for them, I know their weather was lovely!)
ReplyDeleteMama Pea