Back from Arrowhead Provincial Park

The past three days were long (in a not unusual sense, since I have the tendency of sleeping late, thus the day being 'long, but these past few days, i slept very early. The day just seemed so long, most likely due to the energy output).

After setting up the tents, the screen-house, and everything else i.e. food, chairs, etc. etc., my brother and I went out for a canoe. Don't have a picture of that right now. We went around the entire Arrowhead Lake, and were done in less than an hour. So, for the remainder of the rental time, we decided to trade the canoe in for a bike. Ivan had some fun with it! After the biking journey (and for me, the long walk back to the campsite), I went for a shower. I was ready to curl up into a ball and sleep! I retired right after dinner the first time, and slept for a good 12 hours. Is that even possible?! I slept from ten pm to ten am. I blame that on my headache. Or, perhaps it was because I just got off my medical supply of penicillin and my body was reacting weird. I felt exhausted during the light canoing.

The next day, was the better day. Rising at 10am, breakfast was eaten monstrously. Bread, with eggs and ham have never tasted better! After that, we did some chores, washing the dishes, cooking lunch, and about an hour after breakfast, ate our second meal of the day. And, we ate quite a lot too! Good thing we did. I have a feeling we burned all the energy that we consumed portaging the kayaks. My brother and I rented Kayaks, and our parents a canoe. And, off we went into a little river called "Little East River". There we paddled in the quite waters.




Here we are portaging one of the kayaks. These guys are heavy!! Although I think we only portaged about 50meters one way, it was tiring. Going up and down those little hills, and over the tree roots in FLIP FLOPS, and having my feet covered with mud was not easy.
But, I'd do it all over again!!


We had to portage around the Stubb's Falls, ince we wanted to continue down Little East River. We were hoping to reach Big East River, where the River is much wider, and the current much stronger. But, about 30 meters after the portaging, we encountered a huge pike of logs and fallen trees. We didn't really want to portage again, so we headed back. Again, we still had about 2 hours left from our rental, so we took out two mountain bikes and hit the Biking Trail. Being the 'adventurous' one, I decided to take the more difficult trail. I don't know if that was for better or worse. The trail was difficult. The hills were steep both going up and coming down. Going down was scary, because there were big rocks and the trail was so bumpy. To be honest, I was totally freaked out. There were also parts that were so muddy, we had to get off to pass them. And, of course parts of the trail... was a bit tough, and my little thighs couldn't keep up. Scary, but exhilarating ride. And did I mention that the bike, although it was a Trek, was extremely uncomfortable. After 7 mosquito bites, we conquered the trail. And although the bikes itch, it was worth the while. And, not to mention that the trail was a ways off from the rental place. It took us a good 15mins just to bike to the trail. The 4km trail itself took us a good 20mins to finish. The rental office is next to the beach, and after returning the bikes, i hit the beach. It was rainy, and chilly, but I didn't really care, or mind.

I suppose I was the first one that braved the waters. It took me a while to get in, but I did and I started swimming. I also did something that was extremely physically exhausting, and a bit stupid. Although, I'm so glad that I did. I swam across the lake. There was a dock on the other side. It was probably about 100meters. Thanks goodness my brother was with me. I swam about 20meters ahead of him, and he caught up with me like a piece of cake. I'm glad this swimmer guy just got his bronze cross. If anything did happen to me, at least he would have been able to save me to shore. About 5-10meters to the dock, I felt my muscles caving in on me. I think I pushed them a bit too much, ad I really didn't want them to Spaz on me in the water. I called for help, and my brother came back for me. yay! I felt 'saved'. There were these kids with a 'dad' on the dock, thy were trying to tell us something, but i couldn't hear. When I got closer, they were trying to tell us to stay on 'this' side of the dock. There were mating Snapping Turtles close to the shore!

I must say that this second day, the kayaking, biking and swimming, was the triathlon that i never had. it was amazing.

Hopefully, the biking trail back home here will be a lot easier.