Experiencing The Great Canadian Outdoors Part 1

So I’m back once again, after spending three days and two nights in “The Great Canadian Outdoors.” As you know, I love wildlife photography and being out in nature, but its been quite some time since I actually slept out in nature.

Early Friday morning we all met at Patrice’s place and after making one other stop we started out on our three hour journey into the wilderness.

As we neared our destination the signs for moose crossing the road appeared, so I was hopeful and with camera in hand, however, none would be seen.

When we arrived at our destination, there was already many people there, and they were getting into canoes to take them out to their camping sites. As I’m not a lover of being out on the water, I was relieved to know that we would not be taking a canoe, but we would be in the comfort of a much larger speed boat to take us out to our camping site—-or so I thought.

While it was not a canoe, our speed boat was made out of wood and it was not much larger than a canoe. Since there was nine of us in the group we had two boats and much camping gear with us. Many unpleasant thoughts came to my mind, but I refused to let them manifest.

So we all climbed into the two speed boats and off we went to find our camp site. I had my camera with me and decided to focus on the wildlife around me, and that would definitely take my mind off any unpleasantness. I soon came to realize that I would not be taking any pictures, but instead, I would be hanging on to my hat with one hand, and hanging on to the boat tightly with my other hand. The boat smacked hard against the waves. I remembered Chris saying, “It sounds as though it’s hitting rocks.” And then I thought; ‘Dear Lord, could it really be hitting rocks!’ But I soon realize it was only the waves, even though that didn’t make much of a difference.

There is a saying that: ‘Time flies when you’re having fun.” But this 20 minute boat ride seemed to be taking 20 hours, as it smacked ferociously against the waves.

At one point we slowed down and I was relieved thinking we had arrived at our destination, only to find out, we had slowed to let the kyaker pass.

Off we went at full speed once again on Opeongo Lake, heading towards Annie’s Pass which was to be our destination for the next three days and two nights.

I know this was not the first time that someone was afraid while in a boat out on the lake, and of course my thoughts were turned to the disciples.

But as they sailed He fell asleep. And a windstorm came down on the lake, and they were filling with water, and were in jeopardy. And they came to Him and awoke Him, saying, “Master, Master, we are perishing!” Then He arose and rebuked the wind and the raging of the water. And they ceased, and there was a calm. But He said to them, “Where is your faith?” And they were afraid, and marveled, saying to one another, “Who can this be? For He commands even the winds and water, and they obey Him!” Luke 8:23-25

While I can’t say that the waters became less choppy, by thinking of this passage it reminded me to have faith, know that God is not asleep, and He can see what I was going through, and of course any thoughts of God will bring comfort to my heart.

FINALLY—it appeared as though we were nearing our destination. Praise be to God for His safety and His protection.

Yes, the boat was finally slowing down, and we had reached our destination.

The next task at hand was to take care of our sleeping quarters for the next three nights. This hammock was the sleeping quarters for our leader Richard Jules. You’ve heard me speak of Richard many times while either referring to his youtube.com/watch or his other art work https://fineartamerica.com/   If you are new to my blog you may enjoy these two links. I would also learn something new about Richard on this trip, and that is he is quite skilled also in his outdoors abilities, making him quite the outdoors-man.

This is Tina’s and my tent. It was one of the last tents to be assembled. We had quite the time putting it together, trying to figure out what went where. We picked our spot quite carefully, making sure we had a prime lake front view. Looking back now, our location may not have been ideal, but at the same time I don’t think we had much choice.

I will share more on that in another post as I continue my experience in “The Great Canadian Outdoors.”

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