Porter's Lake Provincial Park ~ Day 1

Still shaking the tiredness out of our bones after paddling down the Restigouche, Charlotte made it quite well known that she’d spent enough time with adults on the river, and now needed the company of her friends.

    “When are we going to the playground?”

    “Can Lila come to our house for a sleepover?”

    “I’m bored!”

Feeling a little itchy to get out of the house again myself and go bush, this time with some peace and quiet for myself, after an otherwise full-paced trip to New Brunswick, I decided camping was the way to handle this one.

We left the dishes from last night’s supper stacked in the kitchen sink, loaded up the truck, invited Charlotte’s friend, Lila to come with us, and headed straight back out to the campground at Porters Lake Provincial Park.

Of course, on the way, we had to make a few strategic stops to shop for “supplies” (aka. Junk Food). Taking a leaf out of Deb’s book, we also stopped into the Dollar Store to stock up on marshmallows, acrylic paints, stretched canvasses, paint brushes, and other little crafts to keep the kids occupied.

Charlotte also packed a bag of board games and was dying to play beer pong – albeit with apple juice – ever since I brought that home with me from a ‘Fishing Trip’ on Charlotte Lake (that’s another story).

Instead, it was agreed that there was enough going on with the girls helping with setting up the tent, erecting their camp cots, and finding their way around the campsite so they were familiar with where everything was. Beer pong would just have to wait until next time.

With the campsite established, took ourselves off to the lakes edge for a quick dip, just to wash away the fatigue of constructing Taj-ma-Coleman Tent to the satisfaction of two very particular young ladies.

Back at camp for the evening, I set to work getting supper prepared on the gas BBQ I had stolen from our back deck, and the girls got stuck into their painting and their crafts.

During the gourmet dinner service, we had a great visit from Jody & Tanya, who I feel like I haven’t seen in ages, followed by Lila’s Dad, Kevin, who drove out for a quiet brew, a good yarn, and s’more, and popcorn cracked over the open fire. It was great to be outside, poking the embers, and enjoying the relaxed atmosphere of camp life.

The only real bummer from the day was when Lila saw her Dad and decided she wanted to go home with him – a perfectly reasonable expectation of a nine-year-old, at 11 pm, camping in a strange place with only a couple of well-placed glow sticks to fend off the creatures of the night.

Tig was completely bummed, of course, but after a few disappointed tears, contented herself with the fact that she would finally get to play beer pong the following morning – a promise I simply had to keep, because come day break, she would be stuck with only her boring old man for company.

Rest up, Charlotte. It's game on at first light, kiddo!

Home Alone & Eating Right

The day immediately following the Restigouche River Trip, Michelle went off to St. John’s, Newfoundland for a friend’s wedding, leaving Charlotte and Will to fend for themselves.
The first lunch alone was served up from what was left over from the coolers. Everything eaten that day had just returned home from three days on the river. Tasty enough, but not exactly nutritious.

Later that evening, with nothing in the fridge after having eaten so well on the river, Dad suggests they head out to the Mic Mac Tavern for a bite – as has become tradition for the pair when Mum heads out of town: a nice medium rare T-bone steak with a Nine Locks Extra Special Bitter for Will, and a tasty poutine with a colouring sheet, some crayons, and a Shirley Temple for Charlotte; but instead, Charlotte insisted they go to the grocery store and buy good food to eat.

“No, Dad. No more beer. Mum said you have to eat more salad!”

Unable to argue with solid advice from an eight-year-old, that’s exactly what they did.

(Note the sneaky Two Crows Pollyanna, scavenged from the cooler. Still cold. So yum!)

Not only did Charlotte pick out the steak and the salad, she also set to work, showing Will how to make a proper smoothie.

“Don’t forget, Dad. You have to make my lunch on my first day of Camp, too – and no chips!”

Being schooled on how to prepare a nutritious meal by an eight-year-old is a wake-up call, to say the least.

Well done, Tig!

Restigouche Canoe Trip ~ Kedgwick to Halifax

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.

http://www.canoerestigouche.ca/en

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!