The day started off with everyone meeting at Brian and Lorraine's for a breakfast of pancakes, bacon and french toast. Then we went to Tom's to finalize all the supplies. Tom gave each of us a little knife as a souvenir, and Jill was very happy to have her own knife for the first time! Back at Brian's place, we locked up the trailer and truck and then headed to Subway for lunch. There were 5 canoes and 2 vans packed with Mark, Evelyn, Jill, Dale, Brian, Lorraine, Stephanie, Serena, Alliah (1 and a half years old), Tom and Jesse. Florence ( a close neighbour) and Clayton were our drivers. We drove for about an hour north of Sioux Lookout and unloaded the canoes and bags.

After some departing group photos, we paired up; Brian and Steph, Tom with Lorraine and Alliah, Dale and Mark, Jesse and Jill who is all smiles because she got to be with the elite canoer, and Evelyn with Serena who started off going in circles at first but eventually got the hang of it... sort of! Jesse just finished climbing Mt. Logan in May, the highest mountain in Canada.

We canoed for about 2 hours and stopped to set up camp. It was amazing how Tom, Jesse and Brian would have a fire made up by the time the rest of us were finished unloading our canoes. Jill and Dale are sleeping in one tent, Mark and Evelyn in another, Jesse is in a tent with his Dad, and Brian and Lorraine, Steph, Serena, and Alliah are in their own tent. Supper is really good. We had T-bone steak, corn on the cob with butter and potatoes. (Mark says that the steak is better than Al's ).

Because of the large amount of rain this season, the mosquitoes are as bad as we've ever seen them. Mark's face and neck are covered with bites, as they seem to really like his blood!! Stephanie has bites all over her knees where the bugs can get through her pants, and that night Jill and Dale shared their tent with the mosquitoes, so from then on, Dale was obsessed with fanning the door whenever anyone wanted in!

The rain started coming down during the night, and it was still coming down when we woke up in the morning.

We are eating porridge in the pouring rain, and are quite late in packing things up, hoping that the rain would let up...It does, and we get back in the canoes at 11:10. 5 portages today, the second one being very steep with deep mud. It was still overcast, but warm with no wind. There are no bugs out on the water.

For lunch at the end of the third portage, we had bagels with salami, cheese or peanut butter and jam. Then for dessert, we got our chocolate bar for the day, a mars!

To set up camp, we found a small island that is perfect. We all swam in the lake and washed up. Then Jill, Jesse and Stephanie went fishing. Jesse caught 2 right off the bat, while Steph and Jill just got snags... A while later while Jesse was gone to the bathroom, leaving his rod near the water, Steph took a big swing in attempt to cast her rod, but instead she just hit Jesse's rod right into the water! Luckily, it didn't go in very deep. But as she was reaching down to get the rod on a slippery rock, she slipped right in with it up to her butt!! It was quite the sight!

We ended up having 4 fairly big fish in the end, and they made for a good supper along with corn and fried potatoes. The sun came out, but it was short lived, because thunder was heard in the distance. Dale spends his free time practicing with his sling shot that he got from Clayton, and so far we all agree that he needs as much practice as he can get!

To get bug free water, Jill and Serena go out into the canoe, and they like that job. Jill and Dale are having a lot of fun. Jill caught a big fish but it got away, and as the night went on, the fish seemed to get bigger and bigger!! She and Jesse are very good in the canoe - always in the lead. It was a good day in the end, despite the rain.

After a good nights sleep, now that everyone is getting used to their mattresses (Serena and Steph are very envious of Jill and Dale's 2 inch mats!) We all woke up to Brian making coffee. Dale cooked bacon and Tom made apple pancakes. It rained in the early morning, but not for long, and the day turned out to be beautiful.

We did 3 portages, the second one being the longest at 500m. (1\2 km) The trail was overgrown, with trees in the way and lots of mud. Mark carried a canoe and it almost killed him! The portages are hard work with several trips involved. Everyone wants the job of staying with Alliah on the portages! We went through a couple of light rapids, and then the best part was going through a tunnel, under a train overpass.

This tunnel goes around a curve, so you have to watch not to hit the canoes or your head!

During the day, Serena decided to take off her glasses, and when she took them out of her pocket, one lens was gone! Trying to focus all the time hurt her eye too much, so what she did was put a big piece of duct tape over it! She looked like a pirate, and every time we looked at her we laughed! As she says, duct tape is good for everything!!

We stopped for lunch at a small portage on a beautiful rock. The water is very clean. We ate cold pancakes with peanut butter and jam.

The camp we had planned on had a cottage on it, so we ended up doing a huge circle around a lake... in the wind, until we found a spot right on a little beach. It was so funny watching Evelyn so scared by the waves as we struggled to canoe on. A quick storm blew so hard that we all just stood there holding our half made up tents until it stopped. By the end, Mark and Evelyn's tent was soaked inside out!

Alliah is being amazing, and she is super cute. With a different outfit practically every day, we think she's putting on a fashion show for us!! She's shy with Mark, but he still tries to play with her...So far it's just scared her.

Supper was macaroni and cheese, with a beautiful sunset. We're all going to bed early because it was a long day, and we have to get up by 6:30 tomorrow.

We all got up early today, to beat the winds We had Lorraine's home made granola and milk powder for breakfast. It was easy going for the most part today, and we made good progress. Mark's beard is looking better and better as this trip goes on...right

Only 1 portage which was level but muddy. To our surprise, we met a group of about 8 Americans who were fishing. They park their boats on one side and then get into boats on the other side. Jesse kept Jill laughing almost the whole time by singing so much, especially this one song, Smoke on the water...??

Our camp had a small beach, table and fire pit. It had level places for our tents. Tom made some soup and we also had bagels, cheese, salami, and our chocolate bar of the day, Turtles...someone ate Jesse's (we all think that Brian did...) After lunch Mark, Dale, Jesse, Steph, and Serena went swimming. Then the adults and Alliah went for a nap, and the teenagers played cards in Jill and Dale's "party tent" It was fun for Jill and Dale who won a lot, and hilarious to watch Serena and Steph fight for last place over and over!!

Tom made turkey rice for supper and we all watched in awe at how much Jesse ate! For a skinny guy, he sure ate like a pig!! There was lots of movie trivia going around during supper to keep us entertained, and there were canned peaches for dessert.

It was a nice morning with few clouds and porridge for breakfast. As we were leaving our camp, Jill and Jesse along with Mark and Serena spotted a moose swimming from island to island. Jill and Jesse got up really close to it, and later Tom said that he's heard of people getting on their backs for a ride while they swim! We had 2 portages and we stopped for lunch at a nice sandy beach. The bagels and cheese tasted good after our workout, and the nice thought of no more portages!! YAHOO!!

We were making good time, so we had a long lunch and Steph, Serena, Alliah and Jill went swimming. Alliah was adorable in her little suit with matching water shoes and little bonnet.

There was still more canoeing to do, and we actually got pop from Tom after he stopped at a "fly in fishing" place. After awhile the caffeine must have kicked in because a giant water fight erupted between Jill and Jesse against Mark who was then canoeing with Serena. Evelyn and Dale got into it too. Poor Serena got all wet from her "partner" Mark who splashed her every time in attempt to get Jill and Jesse!! Jill got the dumb idea of trying to stop the canoe so that Mark could get a good shot at Jesse, but he just laughed as he steered her right into Mark's line of fire!!

There was a total of 11 portages on the trip and in total we will have canoed over 80 km!! We stopped at a tiny little island for the night, which made everyone nervous when it came to washroom breaks! The island had a loon's nest with 2 huge eggs in it, it was really peaceful. Jill, Stephanie and Serena went swimming again, and everyone was tired, this was our longest day. It was especially long for Evelyn, because she went in a canoe with Dale, and learned how to steer. She once forgot that it was her that was steering, and she kept telling Dale to turn as they ran into the bushes!!

We had spaghetti for supper and Jill thought that it was the best meal by far.

It's the last day of the trip, and we only had a couple of hours paddling to do. Everyone woke up at 6:30 again because it looked like it might rain. Alliah surprised us all when we saw Mark holding her as she threw rock after rock into the water with him, it made his day! Granola for breakfast, and we were off by around 8:00. We are all happy at the thought of nice beds, showers, and best of all, BATHROOMS!! It's no fun going in the bush with the mosquitoes feasting on you that's for sure! Lorraine would chuckle as she watched people coming back from their trip to the bush scratching their behinds after giving the mosquitoes a nice big snack!

After about 2 1\2 hours, we reached the bridge which was our pick-up point. We brought everything up onto the road, and Jill and Serena congratulated each other on avoiding carrying a canoe the whole time! Then Mark and Brian set off walking and hitchhiking the 5 mile long walk to get the vans to pick us up. When we got home, we all got to work on our laundry and got in line for the showers!

Later on after we'd all cleaned up, we went for supper at a restaurant in town. It sure was nice to be clean again!

We had a wonderful trip. The scenery was beautiful, the food was excellent, and the weather was good too. But it was the people that we were with, that made the whole thing worthwhile.

Thanks