After four days in the Ontario wilderness, Emily and I are safely back in Ottawa. All told, the trip was successful and a lot of fun. We spent two days traveling and two hanging around our serene camping area, largely while others fished (more on that later). Wildlife sightings were fairly limited – though we did manage to inadvertently terrify a Canada goose and her greenish goslings – though it was nonetheless refreshing to be immersed in nature. While the weekend did include some serious rain, thankfully none of it fell during times when we had to decamp or travel. The smell of campfire smoke will doubtless linger on our clothes and selves for some time yet.
Getting out into the wilderness was certainly a most welcome break from city life. Similarly, the time spent in Toronto was a nice break from relatively parochial Ottawa.
For the visually inclined, some photos are on Facebook.
Two related videos:
Emily diving into Smoky Lake
Cleaning a pike
It was a truly excellent trip.
Also, thank you for the visual of me flailing my arms on my tippy toes in a bathing suit. That is not embarrassing. At all. ;)
It’s great to hear you guys had a good time.
Updates from Otterwa
May 22, 2008
Anyways, other than being chronically unemployed, life in Ottawa and recent adventures out of the city have been actually really great. Milan and I spent the long weekend (and a day before and beyond) canoeing to and camping on Smoky Lake with 11 other wacky camper characters. Among the things that were most notable was the horrifying recognition that I was expected to *carry* canoes over land for *minutes* at a time.
More photos from the trip are on Martin’s website. These include the full 3072 x 2304 pixel versions of my photos.
We camped at:
N 45˚51.906′ W 080˚13.671
I think this is the spot on Google Maps.