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
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