Not So Slow Day
Got started early again today. Weather ok but a bit unstable when I checked it. Had some coffee and toast and Jubs was itching to do something so we walked down to the beach and then connected to wifi quickly to double check the weather. On the way back I ran into the neighbour who gave me the tip about the beach on the reserve yesterday. She asked me if I’d made it down and I told her about the sign and she was annoyed with herself that she had forgotten to tell me to ignore it. It’s because (I didn’t get too many details but because of the Indigenous land rights there is a piece about protecting a sensitive environment and they have some sand dunes that qualify. It’s basically a rider statement (or so it seemed). She said to go anyway. I mentioned I wanted to paddle up the Pic River so I’ll probably paddle over there rather than drive as part of the trip. She thought that was cool. So that’s what I did!
We got ourselves ready and just as we were pulling out of the cove, the fog started to roll in. That being said, it was calm and the winds were low so I hugged the shore and paddled anyway - also armed with maps on my phone that pinpoint my location just in case.
Got to the beach on the other side of the mouth of Pic River in about 40 minutes and pulled up. Wow. This beach was perfect. Pulled up the canoe and Jubs went crazy. I haven’t seen her that happy in ages - full zoomies, many times. We walked the entire length down the beach, about 1.5km and then back. Stayed about an hour as the fog came in and out. Got ready to leave and dickhead Jubs managed to dump us just as we were pulling off the beach. Thankfully in only knee deep water but we were soaked. And then to add to that dickhead Jubs didn’t want to get back in the boat so I started paddling and she ran/swam alongside. Finally got her back in the boat and we paddled down (or up, I dunno) Pic River about 2km and then decided to turn around and paddle home. As I paddled out the mouth of the River, the fog came in hard and thick. At the worst you could only see maybe 5 canoe lengths ahead so I hugged the shore and was thankful the wind hadn’t picked up. Had to check the map a couple times as I got close because the gap back to the park is small and hidden.
Just as I rolled up to the beach at home, there was my new friend Tom. He’d rolled in about 10 minutes ahead of me but of course because of the fog, I didn’t see him and vice versa. Yesterday, I’d offered him to crash on my site if he liked and he took me up on the offer. Thankfully for both of us, our timing was impeccable as the thunder started to rumble and then the skies opened up. We rushed to get the gear back to the site, which wasn’t hard because it’s right by the put in and then we got out of the rain, under my tarp. It just poured and poor Jubs was shaking like a leaf but she hid with Tom.
Finally the storm passed and we emerged from under the tarp and started puttering around planning dinner. It’s nice to have some company.
Ran into town to get supplies for dinner. Tom got us steaks and I was craving pasta so we had a mishmash.
Busy day but great.
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