AND THE "LAKE OF DEATH"

This one hits close to home, as the search is being conducted as I type this on the lake our cottage is located on, Carson Lake, 'our' lake if you will. Please don't think I am callous for suggesting the missing man is dead, but if a canoeist goes missing like that, it is more than likely he has ended up drowning:

Canoeist Missing on Carson Lake (CBC.CA)

COTTAGE FOR RENT

So if you are ever interested in spending a week at a really great little cottage near several of the more underused gateways to Algonquin Park, just check out the following link:

KIJIJI.CA: Private Lakefront Cottage - Barry's Bay Ontario

For some of you, it might look familar, for others, it is our cottage near Barry's Bay. If you are interested in helping us cope with a 145% municipal tax increase over a four year period, just let me know!

THANKSGIVING

Made it to the cottage for Thanksgiving weekend, and the wonderful occurrence of a meeting of the entire family! Mom and Dad; John, my sister Susan, and daughters Rachel and Natalie; Jeff, my sister Pamela, and their daughter Sophie; and Katherine and I with Alexander and Rudi.

Thanksgiving weekend also generally means 'closing' the cottage, although being a four season home, what it really means is storing everything used in the summer that you cannot leave outside over the winter. The paddleboat and wooden stairs come up from the lake, and for the first time this year, I built indoor canoe storage! There was no way I would be leaving an H20 composite canoe on blocks and under a tarp outdoors over the winter.

Building the canoe storage system was a four person operation. My dad Roger offered engineering advice while enjoying a Sleeman Honey Brown Lager. Jeff assisted with experiential advice and opinion while enjoying a Unibrou Chambly Maudite, a beautiful strong amber ale. John cut the support hangers and made tools available while sipping a Honey Brown, and I measured and installed the brackets while also enjoying a Sleeman. Then John and I raised the canoe and slung it in postion!

An unexpected bonus is the fact that there is enough room to store a second full size canoe (16' or more) underneath the first, and even a 15' solo underneath the first two!

UP THE CREEK WITHOUT A PADDLE (WE ACTUALLY HAVE PADDLES, JUST NO CANOE!)

Well it is about 10pm now, and we are at the Rainbow Inn in beautiful Huntsville Ontario, far from our destination of the cottage in Barry's Bay! I find it a bit ridiculous that we are smack dab in the middle of cottage country without a canoe on the top of the van!

In any event the day started uneventfully, leaving North York just after 7:30am with the van packed full and two gorgeous new Alchemist boats on the roof. An easy almost 2 hour drive got us to the Paddleshack store just outside of Gravenhurst to drop the boats off, and then we were on the road again to Barry's Bay via Huntsville, Highway 60 through the park, and on to Carson Lake. Only we didn't make it quite that far!

A minor ticking in the brakes on the drive up, which I attributed to the sound brake pads make signalling the end of their service life turned into a terrible sounding clunking just as we pulled off Highway 11 onto 60 at Huntsville. I hobbled into the Walmart Lube shop parking, with the van continuing to make horrible clunks, and as soon as I stopped, the left rear wheel nearly twisted off the van, held on by the last remaining lug nut of five originals.

Two hours later, after being towed to Midas, the news came in. Seems one or more wheel nuts were loose, and the four eventually backed off completely. How this happens 5 months and 6000km after the wheels were off for a brake job is a bit beyond me, as if my shop had left them loose the wheel would probably have dropped off within a few hundred kilomtres. Which then makes me wonder, did someone loosen one or more of the nuts within the last week or so? I would love to find out, but probably never will!

Fortunately Midas is close to downtown Huntsville, on a commercial strip with 3 motels within walking distance, and Katherine, Rudi, and Alexander went off in search of a room, and finding a decent rate at the Rainbow Inn we booked in. An hour later I had walked up all our luggage and we got settled in.

CANADIAN 16-6 ON THE WATER

H2O Composites Canadian 16-6, being put through her paces by Peter and John on the choppy waters of Carson Lake. The boat is a Kevlar standard, fitted out as a rental.

CANADIAN 16-6 ARRIVING AT SHORE

H2O Composites Canadian 16-6, paddled by Peter and John, arriving at shore after a half hour run on Carson Lake. She certainly is beautiful (and they aren't that bad looking either!)

THE BIG CANOE TRIP

It was last summer, and I had promised to take Rudi on a big canoe trip. Until then we had only gone out on little trips up and down the shore of the lake, and sometimes across to a point with some cottages and back around the bay. This time however, I was thinking of canoeing as far as we could go, to see if there was a way to get to Lake Kaminiskeg, about 10km away!

I knew from trip with Katherine about seven years earlier that there were several linked lakes that you could canoe, and that there possibly was a drain or additional lakes from the last of the four heading to the big lake, Kaminiskeg.

So one morning, Rudi and I set out in the canoe, and paddled away. We headed down the east side of Carson Lake, paddling slow and steady, following the old Ottawa, Arnprior, and Parry Sound Railway embankment off to our left, until it veered away from the lake. After about an hour we reached the concrete culvert under the highway, and pushed through.

On the other side the culvert opens into Trout Lake, and a sandy beach area, where we surprised a gentleman and his two kids who were bathing. Paddling away down Trout, we tried to keep out of the rising sun toward the east side of the lake, sometimes skirting within twenty feet or so of the shoreline.

(To be continued)