Friday, July 22, 2011
Day 7 - Jeff
Probably my favorite day so far, they just keep getting better, that or I am getting more relaxed. One might think otherwise after reading how the day started but it's all part of the experience.
Let's go back, settling in for a nice night with the tent shell off for a cool breezy night under the stars, walking back to tent and in the horizon we see sheet lightning, great! We are starting to doze off, well Julie anyway and all I can think of is the sky opening up and getting soaked and having to put up shell at 4am, Julie is adamant it won't rain so I do what any self respecting man would do, I wait till she falls asleep and I put the top on the tent, of course we wake up and no rain, I am pretty sure I got my first "I told you so".
At around 4am I got a terrible leg cramp and woke me right up in severe pain, finally got to sleep and when I got up and told Julie she said oh, thought you were having some "wild" dream cause you were moaning and moving around, upon finding out it was a cramp she said it was from dehydration and/or low potassium (eat a banana) and told me how to make it go away if it happens again, pssst, and where were you last night when I was in excruciating pain?
Now the payback, and it was all so worth it, Julie heads up to bathroom and I being a man pick the nearest tree, hmmm why would julie leave a bag of trail-mix out, hmmm there is another one, oh wait front hatch of kayak open, uh oh, racoons! Then I see they have crawled under her deck and got into her deck bag she left snacks in, tsk tsk, the little critters are smart, they actually opened the zipper and unlatched two tie downs to get at food, lost all bags of trail mix a few bars, some fruit packages and my NIBS. I had a pretty good laugh at the whole thing, anytime we couldn't find something it was "damn racoons took it"
On the water by 10, was a beautiful day, warm with a nice breeze, quiet day, almost no sound other than the sound of a paddle hitting the water, I so like that sound, and was just so peaceful, was also another short paddle day clocking in at 13km. I do however feel as though the scenery is behind us, lots of the same thing, swamps and lily pads with narrow channels, missing the open lakes and beautiful vistas.
Reached Merrickville lock at around 12:30, beautiful set of three locks in the middle of a historical old town, cutest little village I've ever seen, epitome of small throwback town from early canal days, old buildings and they don't have one commercial store, all small shops, antique stores, mom pop stores, etc, my mother would love this place, they even have a year round christmas shop.
Setup camp and a quick skinny dip and off for patio lunch and cold drinks, local people watching is just funny, bought a book because I didn't bring my sony reader (next time) setup hammock and read 4 pages, feel asleep and woke up couple hours later, ah, love it, soooo relaxed.
Headed out for dinner at this Charles Dickens theme restaurant, was soooooo good and really cool old architecture building as are most in this little town. Met some cool older couple, their son is lead mechanic for one of the teams poised to win Tour de France and he did it years ago in his earlier days, he still does cycling and a quick ride is 100-150km, not bad for 81 years old.
Met demon cat called "Bob" cross between a cat and a lynx, who would look at those animals and say, oh ya, let em mate, weird cause no tale and looks like the thing wants to pounce on ya, did take a swipe at my leg through the fence though, kick, opps, sorry "Bob"
Just crawled into tent, nice and cool, should be a good night sleep.
Fyi, hooked up alarm system to kayak hatch which contains food, Racoons in for a treat if they try that again, we aren't talking noisy pots and pan on string here, this is an actual alarm system with highest ear piercing sound ever, Julie doesn't call me gadget guy for nothing.
Lots of fireflies out tonight, and Bats, Julie doesn't like bats.
Day 7-Julie
Good news...Raccoons have thumbs so they can open zippers and don't rip open my deck bag and destroy it!
Bad news....Raccoons love trail mix. They had a little buffet last night and opened my deck bag and proceeded to eat everything in it. They then opened front of my kayak and found our bag of snacks! They ate all of our trail mix, some protein bars, some fruit squishy, sesame snaps, and our licorice!!!
Good news...our kayaks are 1 bag lighter!
Bad news....Jeff has no treats and is grumpy!
Well, it didn't rain last night so we wouldn't have got wet if we slept with tarp off tent like we planned. However, Jeff couldn't relax as he feared being awaken to a rain storm and getting wet. So, on went tarp and in stayed heat!
Another hot day on the water but humidity is not as bad as yesterday. We paddled our 14k for the day which only takes us a couple of hours. We are staying in a place called Merrickville. "The Jewel Of The Rideau". The main street is lined with artists' studios, specialty boutiques and heritage architecture. And oh yeah...restaurants with licensed patios and cold drinks! We like it here :)
After checking out the shops and grabbing some lunch we stumbled upon a store with used books for $1.99. Jeff and I both agreed that our readers are the only thing we didn't pack that we should have. So, we grabbed ourselves a book each and spent the afternoon at the top of the lock reading and relaxing. Jeff actually slept in the hammock...I did the R&R.
Went to a Dicken's theme restaurant for dinner. On our way all the local hoodlums start making their way down to lock which makes us both a little nervous. Oh well, we have our valuables and the squirrels got the Werthers and Raccoons got all the snacks...how much worse can it get?
Sitting on patio of main drag with all the locals. A little old couple passes and strike up conversation. Turns out he is 81 and an ex-pro cyclist. He still rides. An easy ride for him is 100k! He has rode Tour De France in his racing days. His son is head mechanic for Garmin race team and he is there right now. Very cool!!!!
Our other dining entertainment is couple behind us arguing over who danced with who at a wedding they attended....omg I'm so glad we don't fight! Not once in 7 yrs we've known each other! :). Jeff wants to tell guy he's not good looking enough to be telling his girlfriend "you're not going to win this one so don't even bother arguing". He decides not to...small town and the "pickins" are slim here!
Walk back to our tent is fun...the bats are out and in full flight! I'm terrified of bats for those of you who don't know me. One comes so close to us it almost touched me! Not sure why Jeff finds this funny? Just you wait boyfriend!!!
Get back to tent just after 9 and find another family has set up tents and took our picnic table. Arghhh...I said we should leave some stuff on it so we wouldn't lose it. When is that boy going to listen to me;)
Another great day on the Rideau!
Thursday, July 21, 2011
Day6-Julie
Don't know what time it was, just that it was very early when about 50 Geese landed outside our tent and started their day! My god those things are loud! Jeff being the sweetheart he is got up and tried to scare them all away so I could sleep. I got another hour and was still up before 7am. Can't wait to sleep in a bed!
McD's for coffee. Packed up camp and got some frozen veggies and chicken for dinner tonight. And oh yeah more mushrooms...we both love those.
Today was 45 with humidex and very windy...thank god for that! While we were on the water we were fine. Just kept dipping our hats in and splashing ourselves off. Its when we stopped in locks that we really felt the heat!
Only did 12k today. Wind was at our back most of the day. Surfed across most of the way which was great!
Kilmarnock Lock is home for the night. One of our nicest camps. We have the whole one side of lock to ourselves. Lots of trees which means lots of shade! Lots of privacy :).
Jeff's new nickname is "Kermit". Not only can he dodge traffic like "Frogger", but he can catch and kill flies with the swoop of his hand...2 at a time!!!
Uneventful night...not much to do in this heat. Played cribbage (I lost again) and now taking cover in tent to escape mosquitoes.
So hot that we are not putting rain cover on tent tonight so we get a breeze. Don't think Jeff's too happy about this. Think I'm on my own if it rains in middle of night!
Wish me luck!
Day 6 - Jeff
This is the life and couldn't get any better, as I type this, sitting under shaded trees with cool breeze off the lake, 38+ degrees without humidex but can hardly tell, Julie is currently sleeping in the hammock it's so comfortable where we have our camp set up. Hold on..... Gulp... Drink of cold beer (ok cool but still good) not having cooler sucks on days like this but each lock has a freezer and generally ok with putting stuff in it for us.
I woke up early again this morning, sometime just before 6am, got up so didn't wake Julie and went and got a morning coffee from McD's, after I chased the 50 geese away from our tent of course. One of the best coffees around, sat on a picnic table overlooking water and just enjoyed the morning, was really cool out, to the point I had to put a sweatshirt on, brrrrr.
Julie got up around 7 and we went to grab her some morning java as well, did get a chance to try out "Bullwinkle" (should have used on geese) Pesky seaguls, thwack, twack, take that you noisy little fu#*ers! Julie was laughing cause I kept trying to sneak up on them for the money shot.
Packed up the Kayaks, which by the way have been named "Rocky" to match my "Bullwinkle" mascot which rides on top of Kayak and "Roxy" to match the name across one of the bikinis Julie has been sporting and I am subjected to look at every time she got out, poor Jeff, life is rough. Had breakfast at the "Roosteraunt" and set off just before 11.
Hold on, ah, quick swim... K, where was I, oh ya, paddling...
Today was a short day as I seem to think the remaining 10 days will be as well, so nice out and totally enjoying afternoons of relaxing and swimming.
Wind was about 30km and for the most part directly behind us, today was the first day where I noticed a difference not having a rudder and was windcocking all day, arggghh, few paddle adjustments and all good, took special care this morning to overload my boat and leave Julie nice and light, made a huge difference for her I think.
Last 6km was across the last lake (if you want to call it that) we see towards Ottawa, even got to ride some whitecaps on the way in, wish there was something special I could say but only so much you can do to spice up a 30 ft wide canal, scenery not bad but nothing to write home about, or in this case blog, seems as though the picturesque scenery is the way we came from, and while talking with other boaters it's much the same other than the cottages get more expensive.
In all we did around 14km and arrived at our destination around 2pm, then noticed the heat, wow, it's hot out, my weather station says 38+
Setup camp under a clump of trees, more like a forest with a ton of shade, can't imagine this heat in the city, spent the afternoon jumping in and out of the cool water and just relaxing, almost time to make dinner but first nice shower under the shaded trees, best 14.99 I ever spent.
Leaving the tent cover off tonight and sleeping under the stars. Kilmarnock Lock is beutiful.
I woke up early again this morning, sometime just before 6am, got up so didn't wake Julie and went and got a morning coffee from McD's, after I chased the 50 geese away from our tent of course. One of the best coffees around, sat on a picnic table overlooking water and just enjoyed the morning, was really cool out, to the point I had to put a sweatshirt on, brrrrr.
Julie got up around 7 and we went to grab her some morning java as well, did get a chance to try out "Bullwinkle" (should have used on geese) Pesky seaguls, thwack, twack, take that you noisy little fu#*ers! Julie was laughing cause I kept trying to sneak up on them for the money shot.
Packed up the Kayaks, which by the way have been named "Rocky" to match my "Bullwinkle" mascot which rides on top of Kayak and "Roxy" to match the name across one of the bikinis Julie has been sporting and I am subjected to look at every time she got out, poor Jeff, life is rough. Had breakfast at the "Roosteraunt" and set off just before 11.
Hold on, ah, quick swim... K, where was I, oh ya, paddling...
Today was a short day as I seem to think the remaining 10 days will be as well, so nice out and totally enjoying afternoons of relaxing and swimming.
Wind was about 30km and for the most part directly behind us, today was the first day where I noticed a difference not having a rudder and was windcocking all day, arggghh, few paddle adjustments and all good, took special care this morning to overload my boat and leave Julie nice and light, made a huge difference for her I think.
Last 6km was across the last lake (if you want to call it that) we see towards Ottawa, even got to ride some whitecaps on the way in, wish there was something special I could say but only so much you can do to spice up a 30 ft wide canal, scenery not bad but nothing to write home about, or in this case blog, seems as though the picturesque scenery is the way we came from, and while talking with other boaters it's much the same other than the cottages get more expensive.
In all we did around 14km and arrived at our destination around 2pm, then noticed the heat, wow, it's hot out, my weather station says 38+
Setup camp under a clump of trees, more like a forest with a ton of shade, can't imagine this heat in the city, spent the afternoon jumping in and out of the cool water and just relaxing, almost time to make dinner but first nice shower under the shaded trees, best 14.99 I ever spent.
Leaving the tent cover off tonight and sleeping under the stars. Kilmarnock Lock is beutiful.
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