One canoe trip down

And I have the wet, smelly belongings, sunburn, and bug bites to prove it!

On friday morning I was up before the crack of dawn (hard to do in June! 5:20) to have a shower and get myself off to Huntsville (got there at 10). Had an uneventful drive up there and met my cousin. In regular Walton fashion things were a little disorganized when I got there and it was 2:15 before we finally got the canoe into the water. The first day saw two portages and about 3 hours of paddling to our campsite, which was pretty nice, not too buggy, nice swimming area. However we notice some very large droppings which I recognized to be bear - they were a little old, but still the thought was in my head, so I had a pretty rough night sleep. (For those of you that don't know, I had a bear on my campsite 5 years ago, and it was very scary, it has kind of scarred me forever... I'm always a little nervous in my tent because I feel vulnerable like I can't do anything to fight back.

Saturday brought more sunshine and fewer bugs, so that was nice. A lot of portages though, the last being over a km. Shortly before the portage we could see clouds rolling in, and sure enough, partway across the last lake we started hearing thunder moving in (from all directions!) we found the closest campsite and set up camp (we had wanted to make it to the other end of the lake, but weren't going to risk our safety for it. Coincidentally there was a cute waterfall across a little bay from us, so that was really pretty :) unfortunately though, the campsite had a) leaches, ewwwwww... one thing I am afraid of, and blackflies, double ugh. I loathe blackflies. So another un-interesting evening at camp. we went to bed early because the blackflies were coming out in droves. Was awoken at 9:45 (yes, I was asleep before 9) by a huge crash of thunder... it proceeded to pour rain for half an hour, and the storm was literally on top of us for a good 10 minutes. My paranoid self was afraid a tree was going to get struck down and fall on top of us... actually, I was more worried that my virgin tent wouldn't handly the torrential downpour and that all of our pocessions would be soaked. When it finally let up, we got out of the tent and made channels with rocks to ensure that the water was draining away.

Sunday morning we were up bright an early since I had to make it back to w/loo, and on the water by 8:30 again. only this time, it was overcast and wet from the thunder, so the mosquitos were out in full force. We did a 1600 m portage right away, and the mosquitos molested me... at one time I slapped my hand killing four of them in one swipe. The rest of the day was better than the first portage, but the sun never really came out so I felt it unecessary to put on sunscreen... bad laura, you know better than that, so I got a little pink... well, in some places a lot.

The drive home was good... except to down pours where we slowed to a crawl, I made it back to wloo in really good time. And I guess that is it... great weekend. The bugs were bad on land, but one the water it was gorgeous!!!!!