The throw
Backwoods camping on Crab Lake
Every year for the last decade or so my wife Becky and I have gone backwoods camping with our friends and neighbours Marc and Kris — “backwoods” meaning places that require a few hours of paddling and at least one portage, which is a French term meaning to put a canoe on your head. If I’m being honest, the length and number of portages we undertake has dwindled as we have aged (we are all over the age of 60 now but I’m not saying how much). We used to think nothing of doing three portages of up to 300 or 400 metres or even longer, up a steep incline in many cases, but now we look for routes that have one or two short ones. The last trip to Crab Lake had a single portage of about 160 metres, and it was dead flat, and I have to say it was a real pleasure 🙂
This trip also started near where we live for half the year (when we aren’t at the cottage) near Buckhorn, just north of Peterborough, so we only had to drive about 20 minutes up the road to the Anstruther Lake road. We borrowed a canoe from a friend for Becky and our friend Patrice, Marc and Kris had their canoe, and since we were an odd number I brought my kayak, a 14-foot Perception Carolina (as an aside, someday I wish someone would invent a yoke or something that made portaging a kayak easier, the way canoes are, but so far I haven’t found anything — and I have tried a couple of DIY gizmos that never really worked; if you know of anything please send me an email!).
Continue reading “Backwoods camping on Crab Lake”Remains of the day
With my grandson Casey
Best friends
Catch me!
The jump
Me and my grandson
A present
A trip to Narnia… er, Calgary
Went out to Calgary for our annual trip to Becky’s company Christmas party, which her company thoughtfully pays for, and found that a winter storm followed by minus 15 Celsius had turned the city into Narnia.
Every inch of every branch on the leafless deciduous trees was outlined in frost, and all of the snow that had fallen was frozen in place. It was quite beautiful. Made me miss the place, even though it was frigid.
Continue reading “A trip to Narnia… er, Calgary”Quinn goes to swim class
Quinn had fun at swim class with her other grampa, who volunteered to go into the pool with her while we watched from the visitors’ area
Quinn and Halloween
Quinn gets excited for Halloween, where she is going dressed as one of her favourite things: An excavator!
Fall
Fall mist
A great photo that our youngest, Zoe, got while driving home from Thanksgiving at the cottage — mist rising off the road
Thanksgiving at Golden Lake 2024
We had Thanksgiving at the lake, as we often do, and it was pretty warm compared to some other Thanksgivings, so we ate at two long tables pushed together out in the screened-in porch, which was nice (prior to screening it in a couple of years ago, we had to bring the picnic table into the kitchen to seat everyone).
In this photo I’m pretty sure Ophelia just said something funny
Unfortunately Caitlin and Wade and Quinn couldn’t make it, because they went to Wade’s cottage. But we had a pretty good time anyway — we did our usual Thanksgiving hike up a trail through the woods nearby to a lookout where you can see most of the big part of the lake.
