On the Lake, Part II

Our second day out on the lake saw the sun come up and remain clear most of the day. The day was much less windy than even the previous day, so we decided to go out in the canoe for a short paddle, to get some practice. We paddled around the island we were camped on, which turned out to be a little bigger than I'd thought. The water was mostly calm, however, as the island itself provided a natural wind-brake for most of the trip. People paddling farther out in the lake were not so fortunate, and we later heard from friends of ours that they'd been turned back to the launch by the wind that day.

We spent the rest of our day loafing, napping, and eating leftover bannock pizza, of which we had a large surplus from the night before. We had so much that we ended up not preparing the bannock cinnamon buns that Mel had put on the menu. In fact we never did end up eating that meal.  The bannock pizza also gave me my first real clue as to why we had so much food on the trip. Going out, I noticed that our food pack (actually a 30 l dry bag) was packed right full, with extra food tucked away in the day pack. Now I'm used to trips where four adults can pack food for a five-day trip in one internal-frame pack, with room to spare for the cooking gear. Carrying such a large amount of food on a canoe trip, even one where we didn't plan on portaging, seemed excessive to me. This would be understandable if we were taking a lot of canned or wet goods out with us, but we weren't; Melanie had dehydrated everything dehydratable, and as far as I could tell from the menu we had a reasonable meal plan for the four days we'd be out.  The discrepancy, it turned out, wasn't in the number or kind of meals, but in the size of each meal -- there was enough bannock for the pizza to feed us for the whole trip! And there were two other dishes with large quantities of bannock to boot! So basically we carried enough bannock for a five day trip, plus enough food on top of that for a second trip as well. Needless to say, next year, we're bringing less bannock.

Maddie settled into outdoor living fairly well by this day, and seemed to have a lot of fun playing in the dirt, the water, and seeing all the wildlife (which consisted mainly of squirrels and frogs). She also instituted a ritual of sorts. Each day we were out, at about 4 pm, she would stop whatever it is that she was doing, and grab a couple of pots, spoons, or plastic shovels. We all had to line up, each of us with an improvised instrument, and have a marching parade around the campsite for fifteen minutes. It was pretty fun.  Later that day, she regaled us with an impromptu ballet recital out on the rock overlooking the lake.  Totally made my trip.

The trip ended Sunday morning, with Mel and I deciding to get into the landing before the wind went up. The paddle was uneventful, except for the large number of boats that blew past us, kicking up wakes as they went. We made it to shore without incident, packed the car, and headed home to civilization.  And so ends the Anima-Nip Trip, 2010.