Day 6 (Tues): So, there's this joke that goes like this:
A waiter in a restaurant is checking on his tables. First he goes up to a table of businessmen and asks, "Is everything OK?" Satisfied that they have no issues with their meals, he goes on to his next table, which is occupied by a group of visiting New Yorkers. The waiter approaches them and asks, "Is anything OK?" See, the humor is in the change from "everything" to "anything" - the assumption being that while most diners will find the meal satisfactory, New Yorkers are going to complain about just about everything. What people from flyover country don't grok is that kvetching is just New York small talk, the equivalent of square-staters talking about the weather or tips for baling hay, or whatever it is they talk about.
The group had labeled me a "worrier" because I was forever going on about bears. They for some reason got the impression that because I kept saying that I would be happy not to see any bears, that I didn't want to see a bear. Not true! I would have been perfectly happy seeing a bear from a safe distance. What I didn't want was to bump into a bear in or near camp, as had happened on the group's previous trip to Georgian Bay. I didn't want a bear going through my food, using my toothbrush, or scattering my meds, that's all. They have me all wrong - I am not negative. In truth, I am a little ray of sunshine.
Tuesday both we and the bears hunkered down in our respective (fortunately non-overlapping) camps. As the forecast had predicted, it was a stormy day. We could see some really big waves out on the bay and the water was churning even our protected cove. At peak, the wind was blowing 25 MPH with gusts about 30, and the waves were in excess of 5 1/2 ft. high. Now, I can handle 3 ft. and could probably stay alive in 4 ft., but 5+ ft. breaking waves and 30 MPH gusts - that would be terrifying. So we hunkered down. In the old days, that would have meant a musty paperback and a lot of napping, but in the era of do-it-all cell phones, I had books and videos, and thanks to a compact external Bluetooth keyboard (kudos to Ted for suggesting this device) I could even work on this blog. The rain fly on my tent was ever so slightly off center and so I got a little water in one corner of the tent but otherwise stayed high and dry.
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| Attempting yoga in my tent |
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| Hanging out under the tarp |
The good news was that the rain moved out somewhat earlier than forecast, allowing us to emerge from our cocoons and socialize under the tarp we had strung up, as well as do a little exploring around our island. I had dinner duty once again. This time is was gnocchi, a perennial Jesse camping dinner crowd-pleaser, but with a new sauce - tomato powder, dehydrated mushrooms and kale, and Italian spices. Oh, and topped with freshly grated parmesan cheese. We eat pretty well.
Day 7 (Weds): This was a weird day for me. If you remember, Suzanne had some 24 hour crappiness our first day out, which caused her to skip my delicious burrito dinner. Well, on Wednesday I exhibited a mild version of the same thing. We decided to go out for a local paddle and scout our route for the next move. There's a channel that connects Bear, Moose and Deer Bays, providing a protected route for the beginning of our next campsite move and, guess what, the forecast was for high winds on our move day, so we wanted to see how far we could get without venturing fully out into the big bay. So, we set out exploring through the channels and islands around us and around Hincks Island, which would take us to the southeastern-most corner of Phillip Edward Island. Immediately on setting out I felt really tired and like paddling was a lot of work, even though we had empty kayaks. I commented to the others about how worn out I felt from the paddle the day before but thought nothing more of it. I had no symptoms other than feeling low energy.
We paddled a modest distance of maybe six miles (guesstimate). No heavy weather. When we got back to camp, though, I was beat. I immediately crawled into my tent and slept for 20 minutes or so. Then to make matters worse, I walked up to Tom's campsite. Tom likes to have some personal space and usually camps a little bit away from the rest of us. This time he was up on a higher plateau which required a little bit of effort to get to, and by the time I got back from his campsite I was dazed - all I wanted to do was collapse into my chair and stare into space. Still, I didn't really think anything was up.
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| Paddling the small bays |
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| Signs of autumn in Georgian Bay |
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| Near Hincks Island we saw our first navigational buoy |
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| This smiling face is some sort of navigational marker |
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| Tom using his kayak sail |
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| Honestly, I'm a little fuzzy on the details of our Wednesday paddle, but apparently we ate lunch on a rock again ... |
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| ... and saw a frog |
We had dinner and then were hanging out in the common area trying to get a fire going. It was a cool evening. All of a sudden I started to shiver, and all I could think of was getting warm. At about 7:30 I got up without even saying anything and bolted to my tent where I crawled into my sleeping bag. And the next thing I knew, it was 11 PM. I woke up, got undressed & got ready for bed, crawled back into my sleeping bag, and slept through 'til morning. Fortunately, 11 hours of sleep seemed to do the trick and the next day I felt fine.
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| This entry covers time at the 2nd campsite and paddling in the small bays around it |
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