It Rained Today…
Juno in the canoe - Lake Superior - 2024
Jubs had me up at 6 a.m. She’s very gentle about it, I don’t even hear her, but all of a sudden I feel a presence above me, staring at me. At home, she always curls up next to me in bed and spoons, but it’s hard while camping because of the sleeping arrangements. She always needs to be in contact and is clearly missing it. We each have our own air mattresses—hers is one I found on Kickstarter, and it’s working really well. It’s been nearly as hard finding something she likes as it has been for me to find something I like. I think I have it solved now, though. Thermarest released a new mattress this year, and I took a risk and picked it up. After a few good nights and no pain, I think it’s the solution. It’s not perfect because it feels bouncy, but I’ll take that over being in pain. The problem I’ve had with other sleeping pads is that I wake up in the middle of the night with very sore ribs. I’ve spent hours searching online, reading product specs, reading reviews, and posting on various groups. Nothing worked. But the appeal of the Thermarest is that its fabric has a give to it instead of plasticky/vinyl-feeling stuff so that it feels closer to a real mattress. Anyway, I’m happy with it and also happy I don’t have to spend anymore money on either of us, knowing we can both finally sleep comfortably.
It was grey and rainy all day, and up here that also means cold. It didn’t get above 12 degrees! It’s easy to question global warming when you live here, I suppose.
We lazed in bed for a while after breakfast, then got up and had a walk. Somehow, we seemed to keep ourselves busy until mid-afternoon. It was chilly, however, and damp, so it felt hard to get warm.
Despite the grey and cold, the wind had remained calm, so I decided to put the canoe in the water and go for a paddle. I’d planned to go up Little Pic River, but by the time we’d paddled over there, it started to rain lightly. I’d checked the weather before deciding to go, and it said the rain would hold off for a couple of hours, but alas, it was wrong. We paddled leisurely back to where we put in and went and had a nap.
I like Neys. It was once a prisoner of war camp, and there are old relics to be found through the park. We discovered one on our last little jaunt of the day, a small hike out to a point at the end of the beach. Some old boats that were used to transport the prisoners to their work sites and back. The boats, that looked a lot like dories, had been abandoned there at the end of the war and were weathered and crumbling.
By the time we organized ourselves with dinner and were wrapping up to go to bed, it actually started to feel warmer. I checked the temperature again, but it hadn’t changed; it was that the humidity had gone. Good sleeping weather.
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