Little Pic River
Juno in the canoe - Lake Superior - 2024
Big change in the weather today. Woke up to a bright blue sky with full sun. Stunning. Made a plan to make the most of it as it’s our last day at Neys before we move on.
We puttered around a bit, had some breakfast, and got organized. Had my requisite cup of coffee and then figured out the plan.
Decided to head to the dog beach again to let Jubs live her best life. I honestly have no idea how she swims in that water; it’s so cold. I find it painful even to go in past my ankles. Even in the height of summer, it doesn’t get much past 10 degrees! I was reading somewhere that the actual current temperature is only 4 degrees! Brrrrrr.
I’m quite cognizant of keeping Jubs warm. We didn’t go to the beach yesterday because she’d never fully dry and would have a hard time warming back up. Today, with the bright sun and warmer temperatures, it’s easier to make sure she’s okay. She doesn’t even flinch when she goes in and absolutely loves it. I’ll mix up throwing the ball in the water with long throws down the beach so she keeps her body temperature up. If she starts to shiver, I just encourage her to dig all the holes. By the time we were done, a couple of hours had passed.
The wind was still low, so I decided to take another crack at my paddle up the Little Pic River. It had started to pick up a bit and was a little rolly but still doable. So we set off paddling down the beach.
This beach is beautiful. If it were in Southern Ontario, it would be jammed. But there were only a dozen or so people along the entire length— families hanging out in the beautiful weather. As I paddled past, people waved, and I could hear them saying “wow, there’s a dog in the canoe!”. Fun!
Jubs makes a pretty good canoe partner. Especially when she’s been swimming for a couple of hours. She just sat on the thwart, as she always does, and took in the scenery.
The wind was building slowly, and as I turned the corner to go up Little Pic, the sound of the lake stopped, and everything became quiet, the only sound being birds chirping. I paddled up to where Highway 17 crosses over the river and then turned around. The wind was at my back on the way in, and I knew I’d have to face it on my return, so I didn’t go much further, turned around, and paddled back to the mouth. The wind was steadily growing, and the waves were picking up. I realized all those years sailing dinghies had made me super comfortable with the movements of the boat in busy water. The rolls were hitting us across the beam, which wasn’t easy paddling back in.
I’m so happy with my canoe, I just love it. There are faster, sleeker models, but mine is lightweight while sturdy and can handle a fidgety dog who is constantly on the move. If we had a sleeker model, we’d probably end up swimming more than canoeing. It’s a Prospector 16, which is a do-all model. Some consider it a jack of all trades, master of none, but I like its ability to be flexible. The only thing I can’t do is white water because it’s featherweight Kevlar.
I digress, we arrived back at the put-in and pulled up and hung out on the beach for a bit before carrying the gear across the road to my site.
Jubs was dragging, so tired, so we curled up in the hammie and napped. When we woke up, all I could hear was the waves crashing on the beach. Good thing we came in when we did.
Spent a bit of time packing up the majority of the car so that we could get an early start in the morning for our next move.
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