Heat and Deer Flies

The lush dense vegetation of this area had me often wondering
if we were in some tropical paradise. Maybe paradise-
like, although with attitude. 


Anita and I recently got back from a six day canoe trip from an unmaintained park that I've never been to. The weather was amazing, but the heat was incredibly oppressive. It totally sapped our energy, unlike the deer flies which seemed to derive energy from it. Schools of them harassed us persistently, buzzing around our heads and often slamming into us. My long black hair surprisingly was not only a magnet for them, but a godsend as they often got tangled in it and resultingly got crushed by my hand. I can't tell you how many I caught this way. Although, my grossly swollen bites often was their idea of a fair exchange.

Looking for a way out of this unnamed
 lake,....er,..pond?!

The heat and deer flies certainly stand out from our trip, as it affected us on a daily basis, but there were other things that made the trip memorable too. Considering that the trip was supposed to be a benign outing to explore this park, it soon became apparent it wasn't so docile. We knew the park was unmaintained, but the information on the route was simple and straight forward, so I didn't expect too much difficulty. Was I ever wrong. My original (more ambitious) plan quickly became shortened to deal with the heat, low water levels, route finding, trail breaking and of course the deer flies. Who would have expected?

Even when we found a way, it 
wasn't  always easy.


On an entirely different note, this trip for me has had notable significance - for firsts. First for having my tent/gear crapped on, first for not taking a gas stove, first for having my bandanna getting caught on fire, but,.....the most egregious of all, I actually forgot a meal!!! In all my years of countless numbers of trips from both canoeing, backpacking, and camping trips, I actually forgot a meal!! Am I losing it?! This is a story to blog about in and of itself!

Anita supplementing for the missing meal!

Unfortunately, I don't have enough time to blog about this trip, since I have to prepare for my next one coming up very soon. We recently had to change it due to extremely low water levels, (Noire River in Quebec) so we are going with our back up plan - 10 days on the Mississagi River. I hope everyone has been getting out on trips or has been paddling as the weather has been fabulous. Life is much more enjoyable out on the water, don't you agree? Even with swollen itching bug bites!

Cheers,

tPP 

PS. Anita has 'politely' informed me that she is going to look after the food for our up-coming trip, and quite possibly all the ones in the near future. I've been told. 

Did I already mention the lush vegetation? Lost
 in a sea of  ferns - "I'm over here!"