Thursday, November 9, 2017

Back to School

Buffalo Gal and Ibi on the Canton ramp ready to go.
 

We were forecast to have a severe storm hit us at 3a.m., so between that and the temperature rising along with the humidity, I had given up the tent finally in favor of a night in the air conditioning.  During the night, we had lightning, moderate rain, and wind, but much of the storm must have either fizzled out or passed us by.


James and Maggie in the Micmac.  This was the common English
spelling of the Indigenous tribe from Northeast Maine until the 1980's.
They have since preferred Mi'kmaq.  Anyhow, the canoe is still
going strong after 39 years.
 

The morning was beautiful, though the temps were to rise well into the 90’s.  (This post obviously has lingered since mid-August.)  The lake was calm.  Our son was to come down and join his daughters for our second day of paddling.  James was bringing the Micmac stripper canoe I built back in the summer of 1974.  He and Maggie would tandem the 17-ft. Micmac, Lucie would take her second day in the 15-ft. Mohawk Odyssey, and I would paddle my 17-ft 9-in Superior Expedition “Ibi.”  It was a day paddle, but we took plenty of water and a cooler of sandwiches.  The lake remained calm as we paddled to the headwaters.  We were going to continue around the north end of Canton Lake, but we rafted in some reeds to have lunch together.  While we ate, the breeze filled from the south, so I told James that we may want to be cautious about how far we went, as all the way back would be against the wind and waves.  After we emptied the cooler, James concurred that maybe we’d better work our way back up wind.
 

Maggie enjoys a sandwich after we had run into the reeds to raft for lunch.
 

It was only Lucie’s second day in the Mohawk with a double-blade paddle.  Since she was paddling solo, she was the one we were most concerned about, though we needn’t have bothered.  While she complained a couple times about her arms getting tired, she was resolute and plodded on.  I recommended she use more waist rather than arm muscles, put her paddle behind her neck to stretch the tired muscles, and to paddle closer to the shore and reeds to escape some of the wind and waves.  I was very proud of how she carried through, and told her so when we got back.  Once back at the campsite, Jean cooled us down with iced tea, then iced fruit smoothies, and James and I capped it off with an ice-cold beer apiece.
 

All rafted together in a stand of reeds.
 

James shortly had to leave---the never-ending fast-paced life of a writer.  Jean went on to do Thai chicken over charcoal.  The chicken was seasoned with peanut butter, soy sauce, and garlic.  That was fantastic, and was kept company by beans and rice and a tossed salad.  Jean likes to tell the story about a particular tailgate party while James was a midshipman at the Naval Academy.  Jean did this Thai chicken as shish kibobs and we had a never-ending line of midshipmen scarfing them down as fast as they could be cooked.  I jokingly always add that middies will eat anything that doesn’t outrun them.


James
 

As our last night, it was nice and quiet.  I took down the tent and dried it out, and we listened to the bird serenades: orioles, yellow finches, mockingbirds, herons, egrets, and several roadrunners.  The menagerie was complimented with several large rabbits running around, and raccoons.  

Day 7:
We were awakened this morning by the sound of rolling thunder.  At least it was cool, a true blessing of 73-degrees for the middle of August.  It was time for us to break camp again, and time for the girls to head home to get ready for the opening of school tomorrow.


Lucie

No comments:

Post a Comment