cottage

I woke this morning at around 8 am, and stood on the dock for about ten minutes, watching the last of the lake ice drift by and tinkle in flat drifts against the shore. A pair of loons drifted nearby, eyeing me curiously.

We made it, obviously. :-) You can find the details in Jeff's ice-out report.





It was fun chatting with Don, Linda, Libby & Ric before setting off from Don's and Linda's dock. Don and Linda have the kind of life that Jeff and I lust after, spending a large portion of the year in the park...Don's a writer & photographer, Linda's a teacher.

If there had been more ice on the lake, we wouldn't have been able to get in. In fact, we tried from the Portage Store bay, but couldn't. Setting off from Don and Linda's place enabled us to stick to the shore. Even so, there were places where we had lean out and break the ice with the tips of our paddles in order to get through.

When we got to the Days' cottage, we dropped JBR off to lug some stuff through the forest, then went back to get the rest of the gear.





We couldn't have timed our visit to the lake more perfectly.

I'm sore all over today and have bruises on my knees (from leaning forward on the bottom of the canoe to break the ice), but it was well worth it.

By the time the night had fallen, the ice was already breaking up, pushing silently past our dock in the darkness in the wind of the approaching storm. Jeff, JBR and I stood on the dock for a while, watching the storm coming. Sheet lightning at the south end of the lake lit up the surface of the lake for brief seconds at a time, illuminating the moving ice.

VERY cool to watch. :-)





p.s. Please don't send me big files while I'm at the cottage, thanks; I'm on a dial-up phone line and they take ages to dowload. :-)

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Today's Blatherpics:

	Me in the canoe pulling up to the cottage dock. Click on the top picture or here to see a bigger version.
	We had lunch at MacDonald's on the way to the park, and I got a Happy Meal with the lamest Happy Meal toy I've ever seen. I've named her Cora (after one of the glum sisters in Mervyn Peake's Gormenghast series). This is Cora on the ice.
	Slogging through ice in the canoe.
	Jeff and JBR celebrating a successful ice-out with scotch on the rocks (the rocks = ice-out ice, of course!).