Sat, Jun 28 2008 - Killarney - 4 day Canoe Trip (View Original Event Details)
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The trip began with a daunting day of driving in the rain, but magically cleared just in time for the launching of the canoes. Only to menacingly start again in full force just as we finished setting up the first campsite on Bell Lake, leaving us huddled together under a tarp. But the remaining four days turned out to be mostly clear skies. That is, right up until sunset each day when the clouds rolled in to cover that perfect sunset that Dirk was always poised and waiting for with a hunter’s patience – thankfully with a camera instead of a gun. For many of us it was our first trip to Killarney, and we left in agreement that the park is beautiful, with wonderful lakes, forests, and campsites. We were even treated to multiple wildlife sightings, from the expected dear and loon (well, most of us felt lucky to see the loon), to the not-so-commonly seen bear and turtle. As a matter of fact, there was even a group consensus that Killarney provincial park may boast the “thunder box” with the best view in all of Ontario, located at campsite #100 on David Lake. Although, beware, that canoeist passersby also have a lovely view back at you. If we are going to dare talk about a downside, we should probably mention the mosquitoes, who apparently managed to suck the blood of a previous camper on steroids, but there, that’s it, that’s all the mention they get. We’re all trying to forget about it. Besides the inherent sense of peace and connection with nature that one gets from a trip such as this, it was overall an extremely educational adventure in many regards. Some examples of our life altering discoveries are: 1) We approximated that it would only take 60 pounds of granola and 3 pounds of TVP (textured vegetable protein) to cause a mini natural disaster and suck dry a mid-sized lake (and don’t worry, we didn’t experiment – this was purely theoretical – and semi- hallucinatory, induced by the pain of carrying that amount of granola and TVP. 2) Instead of pre-marriage classes, couples who are about to tie the knot should be sent on a canoe trip together. If both make it out alive and are still speaking to each other – well, give them a license 3) Fireflies can give an amazing impression of shooting stars (nope, we weren’t smoking anything) 4) And the best discovery of all – we may just have invented the most awesome dessert known to camping-kind. It is…….well, maybe we’ll just keep that one to ourselves!! :) TRIP WRITE-UP AUTHOR: SUSAN GILLINGHAM
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