beware of turtles

Chris took me on a nice long bike ride the other day...a much needed break from my mind-numbing research paper. The ride was a challenge for me, even though Chris does double that ride with his eyes closed several times a week! As we turned back towards Orillia, I saw this fantastic road sign and wanted to share:



Turtle crossing! As we rode along the path, we did see one baby turtle but no big ones.

My other big project this month, to get out of my head for awhile, has been this little garden I dug beside my patio. Just a modest one since we will be living in our very own first house by August, and it has a huge yard, so next year I won't be so modest!



I've planted 6 lettuce plants and 2 tomato plants :)








Hope everyone else is getting into the swing of summer too!

Algonquin Park

I went on my first canoe trip! My friend Bridgette and I have both dreamed of doing a multi-day canoe trip in Algonquin Park, and we both realized that dream. We left Toronto on Friday August 17th and drove up to the park. Just getting there was an adventure in that we encountered 1) a dog loose on the 401, 2) a major fire on Hwy 7 just east of Peterborough and 3) torrential rains all the way from Maynooth to Whitney. But we made it. We set up camp at a traditional drive-in site not too far from the Outfitters Store on Friday night, and organized all the stuff we'd thrown into my car. We both felt very unprepared, but we managed to get our act together and made it to the Outfitters Store on Saturday morning to pick up our canoe and get paddling.


Saturday
We did the unthinkable and paddled up Lake Opeongo to the North Arm. The staff estimated 4-6 hours, and we made it in just under 5. It was a long, hard day, but such an accomplishment!! We both felt invincible!!

Set up camp and got warm and cozy around the campfire.


Sunday
We paddled the rest of Opeongo and did a 2km portage over to Happy Isle lake. Oh. My. God. That is one long portage! We carried all the gear the first time, and then doubled back and carried the canoe together. Camped on Happy Isle.


Woke up to this beautiful morning mist.


Monday
Paddled across Happy Isle, and did a .5km portage over to Merchant Lake. Found an amazing campsite on Merchant, spacious, with a lovely "point" and a view of the sunrise and the sunset.


Once we got settled (see photo!)....

....we paddled over to a 60m portage (yes, 60m) and took the canoe over to Lake Chickadee to look for the only campsite on the whole lake. After much searching (we paddled around the entire lake), we finally located the site. There was no orange sign advertising it's location, and when we got closer we realized there had been a fire, so the site is probably closed to the public for a while. This portage was so easy we had time to stop and take a few photos :)


Tuesday
Stayed at Merchant because we loved our site so much. This was my favourite reading nook.


Paddled the perimeter of the lake to explore. It got very choppy and I got very nervous, but we were ok. Found a beautiful campsite with a long narrow beach. Hoping to go back there someday.


Wednesday
Paddled back to Happy Isle and found a campsite on the island. Had a lazy day, reading, getting screamed at by the local squirrels, doing a photo shoot, etc etc.


Thursday
Paddled back to the 2km portage, and went for an impromptu swim before embarking on the 1.5 hour endeavour. Funny thing is, we changed into our swimsuits out in the open on the little beach right at the end of the portage. Just after changing back into our normal clothes, 3 canoes full of 6 American men came paddling into shore to embark on the portage themselves. If only they'd arrived 3 minutes earlier, they would have had quite the show! After the portage, we waited for the ferry to take back down Opeongo (yes, we cheated, and it was worth every penny!).

wandering in the forest

Chris and I took off last weekend. Originally we'd planned to do a weekend away to celebrate our birthdays, but we ended up booking it on the weekend following my last day of work, and also realized that it is our 2 year anniversary of co-habitating! So, we had a lot to celebrate.

We drove up to the Orangeville area on Saturday and went to the Mono Cliffs Inn for lunch. Lucky for us they had 2 veg items on the menu, so we each ordered one and shared. I'm not convinced the salad was full vegan, but it was delicious and nothing bad happened to me after eating it. Chris had a curry bowl. Then we hiked for a couple of hours along the Mono Cliffs trail , which connects to the Bruce Trail ,and ended up at a great lookout pictured below. Parts of the trail were very sandy (strange) so we got very dirty feet also pictured below!






We then drove up to Shelburne, about 20 minutes further north, and found our "B&B" - which was really a woman named Carole who rents out her basement space...but let me tell you, this woman can COOK! We paid extra to have dinner there, and of course, the breakfast was included, and both were terrific organic vegan meals. There are not a lot of places out there that cater to vegan folk, so we were very pleased to find Carole.

Saturday night we attended the Canadian Open Olde Time Fiddle Contest!! You might think this would be all stomping and fun, but it was some serious business! Especially the kids....they were totally into it, and they were amazing!

Also while in Shelburne we stopped to see a "wind farm", pictured below (the pictures don't do it justice).






Sunday morning we decided to strike out and try a new hiking trail, which turned out to be a bit of an adventure. It was part of Boyne Valley Provincial Park, and the trail we hiked (very badly) was the Primrose Loop trail. It was supposed to be about a 2km loop but we were walking for about 3 hours!!! I don't think we did the loop more than once, but we definitely strayed from the blue-marked path! Chris blames it all on The Best of the Bruce Trail book....so if you're ever talking to him about hiking you might want to recommend that book to him and see how he reacts!

As Chris mentions in his blog, getting lost in the forest was a good thing for us because we saw a deer, a turtle, and we almost got run over by some crazy turkey vultures (at least that's what we think they were)....now I'm not so sure because I just looked up turkey vultures and they don't look anything like what we saw....(they burst out of the forest onto the trail ahead of us and ran so fast we couldn't get the camera out in time). These are some of the pictures we did take.





Anyway, now I'm off to Algonquin for another week of wandering in the forest, this time by canoe.....stay tuned!