Paddling Episode 5 Continued

Picking up where we left off yesterday, we continued up the stream, now an obstacle course of downed trees.  This is where we left off yesterday, an apparent barrier, but we never turned back without investigating.  So we did and managed to wiggle past these logs on the left.

The water was incredibly clear, and sometimes misleading.  We could glide across this submerged log easily.

Unfortunately we didn't get very far though before we ran into a serious obstacle, this log two feet above the water.  We couldn't get under, it was too big to cut, and if we went over we'd just be stuck again ten feet ahead.  So we turned back.

There were lots of submerged logs we had to watch out for on the paddle back.

A few Marsh Marigolds brightened the way.

The odd big interesting stump sticking above water.

A Mute Swan paddled serenely by, not too far away.  Made me wonder if its mate was on a nest nearby.

And a gull on one of the more interesting stumps.

Camping and Food on our Canoe Trips

A comment left by Leslie reminded me that I haven't said anything about overnights or food on our trips. so here's a little explanation.  

Snacks are of course most important.  Mid-morning and mid-afternoon we would either stop onshore or raft up (4 or 5 canoes together) to eat something, usually trail mix of some sort - peanuts, raisins, M&Ms and chocolate.  I actually reached the point on later trips where I volunteered to bring the snacks.  tt adds up when you count 8 or 10 people for 7-14 days!  But it refueled us and always made a nice break in the day.

One member of the group always offered to make breakfast, which would be eggs, sometimes with bacon, oatmeal with plenty of rehydrated fruit, or pancakes.  And of course lots of coffee. It's surprising how good such a breakfast tasted out in the wilds!  Lunches were some sort of bread or cheese, with salami or other dried meat.  There'd be carrot sticks for the first few days.  All in all very healthy!

Dinners were more varied.  It depended on what would stay unspoiled after a few days.  There was certainly never any commercially prepared dehydrated foods, but things like potatoes, carrots and onions will keep for quite awhile, as will some types of bread.  Putting together the experience of 4 or 5 wilderness canoe trippers we managed fine.

As for overnights, we were usually out of touch in the wilderness for the entire time, so each of us (or pairs of us) brought small tents and sleeping bags, along with all the other paraphenalia of camping.  We were usually on designated, heavily used canoe routes, so there were plenty of good campsites to be had.  You just had to be careful where you placed your tent in case of rain,

Since there were plenty of portages all of us had to be prepared with packs and waterproof sacks.  At each campsite we made a biffy, digging a hole between two trees and lashing a branch between them to do as a seat.  All in all the on-land part of these canoe trips worked well.