Two Canoein' Fools - Part 1

Brett and I have long talked about going on some sort of canoeing trip. I've had more experience with it than he but even that experience consisted of minor, short-term ventures - nothing major. I put Brett on the assignment of figuring out where we were going and after some internet sleuthing he found a website for Strathcona Lodge on Vancouver Island, B.C. This place offered all sorts of outdoor, recreational activities such as mountaineering, high ropes, zipline, rockclimbing and most importantly - canoeing. We arrived on a Sunday and arranged to stay there that night, leave the next day with one of their canoes, canoe and camp the next three days and stay another night at Strathcona upon our return. The pros - high adventure, meeting new people, bear-sighting, beautiful scenery, great stories - far outweighed the cons - thinking I was going to die.

We put in at the Strathcona Dam and paddled up an arm and into Lake Campbell. The portage (where you exit the lake and hike to the next one) was kilometers away and required going the length of the lake. This particular lake was open to motorized boats so we had to contend with wakes and as it was large, there was a fair amount of breeze that didn't often agree with us in regards to which direction we needed to travel. We wouldn't have been so eager to cross if we'd known the task that lay ahead. We had NO idea how heavy the canoe was and the Australian employee at the lodge made shouldering it look so incredibly easy! So imagine, we've just paddled for 2+ hours and now have to transport the canoe and all our gear to the next body of water. There was a campsite at the portage and I was talking to a woman acquainted with this canoe trail to make sure we'd gotten out at the right spot on the lake (directional signs don't really work on water!). She was affirmative and went on to tell us how to get to the next lake - Gosling Lake. Did we think to check our map and make sure her verbal directions coincided? Um, no. And after a long, grumpy, mosquito-ridden detour to Boot Lake (NOT on our route) we finally got back on track. This time-waster was only slightly redeemed by the fact I had my first bear-sighting! It was a black bear and based on the way he tore through the forest away from us, he was in no way eager to have a human sighting.

We arrived at Gosling Lake and decided to make camp there for the night. Originally we'd intended to get much further but the detour ate up too much of our daylight and it made sense to stop and camp as we were both pretty exhausted. These lakes are part of a ring of lakes and the entire route takes you full-circle. If we'd had more time, we would have done the whole thing.

At Gosling Lake we met the nicest, kindest, friendliest family from Switzerland. Tomas, Cristine and their two children gifted us bottles of water and, upon learning or our tired state, Christine ran to their campsite and returned with an Ovamaltine chocolate bar that she said she gave to her children when they had low energy. It was such a kind gesture. I told them about my great-grandparents being from Switzerland and they thought that was wonderful. We didn't eat the chocolate right then and there but if we'd known how delicious it was going to be we just may have. Our sites were adjacent to one another and after they Swiss retired to their RV we could hear the children (ages 7 (boy) and 9 (girl) maybe?) laughing and talking and they seemed like the happiest children I've ever met. Hearing how they interacted has really stuck with me. The next morning before shoving off, Brett searched our rations for something - anything - we could gift them in return. Of course we didn't pack in anticipation of international relations so had nothing grand so-to-speak from home to give them. (Well, unless you count Winco trail mix!! We had lots of that.) We also had packages of organic fruit-leather with little cartoon frogs on them that were obviously an American product. So Brett selected the ones with the cutest pictures and took them over the Swiss children. Not two minutes later, they appeared in front of us with fresh bottles of water to take with us! We asked their names, Niana and a very heavily accented Mikhail maybe? Brett responded with "Micky??" and the two kids giggled and fled back to the safety of their familiar parents. They must've found our whole expedition curious as the two of them sat on the dock waving as we paddled away.