We had been too tired the night before to fully erect the tent and had slept without the fly installed. We woke late the next morning with sun streaming in and Deb and Philip sipping coffee only a few yards away at the communal picnic table. Even though we all knew we had to get going in time for the planned mid-morning pickup, we were all quite comfortable in our sleeping bags, and were a little slow in getting moving.
 |
We finally got going, had a hurried breakfast and got to work dropping camp and mustering all our gear in one pile, all ready to be picked up by our ride back upriver.
We were still cramming stuff away in the big blue barrels when the Outfitters arrived from Arpin. I left Michelle and Charlotte to tidy up loose ends and joined Philip and the outfitter crew down by the river to begin the tedious process of loading all the canoes on the trucks – waving our hands in the air with knowing smiles when our French and their English couldn’t quite connect the dots.
It took a couple of goes to get both trucks up the gravel roadway that led from the riverside, back up to the River Warden’s hut, but before too long, we were all crowded around the trucks, checking the security of the strops, and loading gear onto the two flatbed trucks.
It was a pleasant drive from Gilmores to Kedgwick, but after a quarter hour of driving - first on gravel forestry roads, then tar seal – we realized just how far we’d come. Once back at Arpin, I spread out the photocopied map I’d made at Philip’s office a few days before, and calculated that we’d paddled just over 50 km total. 50 km! No wonder we were tired.
Having packed everything back into the cars at Arpin, Charlotte and I snuck off to say goodbye to the river, stealing one final swim near the spot we’d put in three days earlier. Drying ourselves off quickly, and slipping back into our clothes, we tracked back up to the carpark to say farewell to our friends, thank them for such a wonderful time, and program the GPS for the long trip back to Halifax. Hitting the ignition switch, the air conditioning blew dust in our faces, before turning to a nice cool jet of air – back to reality for the long drive home to Halifax in 37 deg C temperatures.
The drive home, Michelle and I had to keep talking to each other to stay awake, as we were all starting to fade. Charlotte and I were looking forward to a good sleep in our own beds, while Michelle was ever mindful of the fact that she still needed to pack for her trip to St. John’s, NL, for a friend’s wedding the following day.
Charlotte wasn’t bothered by any such things, and took a hard-earned nap in the backseat, as we passed through all the coastal towns I had visited, only days earlier through work - stopping only to have a sneaky pee under a highway overpass, and for dinner at a drive-in diner in Bathurst.
* * * * *
It was well after dark as we slipped into Halifax and reminisced about our recent adventure – ever grateful to Deb, Philip, and Lucy for inviting us on such an epic adventure and guiding us down the mighty Restigouche River.
We also spared a thought for the wonderful team at ArpinCanoe Outfitters who took such wonderful care of us all at both ends of our journey.
A great time had by all!
No comments:
Post a Comment