Love many, trust a few, and always paddle your own canoe

“What sets a canoeing expedition apart is that it purifies you more
rapidly and inescapably than any other travel. Travel a thousand miles by train
and you are a brute; pedal five hundred on a bicycle and you remain basically a
bourgeois; paddle a hundred in a canoe and you are already a child of
nature.”  Pierre Elliot Trudeau

This past weekend Fiona & Sophie embarked on their first canoe trip…and it was a success!  We had been wanting to go all summer but it didn’t work out until Saturday morning when we launched in a beautiful 17 foot Temagami Canoe Company Prospector wood canvas canoe built by John.

I think I will write a travel post with tips on canoeing with kids later, for now I’ll just bask in how well it went (in spite of our stove blowing up and almost starting a forest fire).

The girls really liked all of it, but their favourite part was “our camping place”.  They loved being able to roam around, swim, play in the tent, the anticipation of roasting marshmallows (oops we actually forgot them) and play school around a tree.  They actually made themselves a school between two tree trunks with bandanna walls. 

The only problem (aside from the fire) was that I didn’t sleep well.  There were three reasons:
 

1. I forgot my earplugs and the damn plants and animals (including John & twins) make a lot of noise at night.
2. I was too hot.
3. I thought the people at the other campsite on our island were psycho canoe head axe murderers and were going to kill us in our sleep.  Really.  I have a ridiculously overactive imagination, always have.  Can’t watch horror movies at all.

I think that the experience is best expressed with photos, so here you are.

About to embark.