something crafty is in the works

I had last week-end off so I decided to go on a mini solo canoe trip to Talking Falls. I got caught up with some admin type stuff at the camp so I didn’t hit the water until 4 PM Saturday. My plan was to hang out at the falls for the night and head back in the morning.

I was paddling against the current and into the wind with a white water canoe so I didn’t make as much progress as I wanted to. By the time 6:30 rolled around I was only at the top of Pinaemodi Lake (the X on the map) and the wind had picked up a bit.

It was at this point I realised that I wasn’t going to make it to Talking Falls that evening and with the prospect of setting up my tent on some random chunk of the river bank, I decided to turn around. Paddling with the current and wind put me back at the highway an hour later. I was a little dissappointed that I couldn’t spend the night out in the woods, but I still enjoyed the paddle. I think that I’ll give it a whirl again later this summer, but next time I’ll leave earlier.

I’ve been at the Ranger Camp for about a month now and it’s totally nice to be back. The only thing that really annoys me is the internet situation. Bell Canada decided to drop their one-way satellite service a few months ago which leaves me with a pile of useless electronics and a super low speed dial-up connection - don’t mess around 19.2 Kbps. The reason it’s so low is because the nearest service provider is 120 kms away. Ignace has a “wireless DSL” service, but it’s line-of-sight and there’s a big hill between the tower and the camp - I was really disappointed when technician told me the bad news. Hopefully they will upgrade the tower in the next couple of years to get better range. Anyway, enough techno-talk, here’s a picture of the camp.

The Rangers arrived about 2 weeks ago and I’ve been super busy organizing the schedule and dealing with a few issues that seem to accompany the arrival 0f 23 - 17 year old boys. Good times I tell ya :D.