The Unexpected

We woke to heavy fog over the lake. The theory about the sun warming us after a cool damp night failed; we had the cool dampish night, but the sun wasn’t able to cut through the fog.

We made a fire, heated some water for a welcome cup of coffee. Mike, the master chef cooked up a warm breakfast. Before we had time to start the cleanup, we were entertained by a pack of wolves howling from the mainland. It sounded as though there were a half dozen or so. They had probably smelled Mike’s breakfast cooking over the fire.

About 9 AM or so, the sun broke through the fog. It was a welcome sight. The water was mirror-like and the fall colours shone in the sun.

We reorganized the campsite, packed a lunch and headed off in the canoes. We paddled down Penn Lake to where the map showed a bog, a small river, and a portage. We were hopeful to spot a moose to go along with our wolf howling story, but we weren’t so fortunate.

We walked up the portage along a series of falls. At the top, we were pleasantly surprised to find the remains of an old log chute from bygone logging days. We could imagine the trees being cut in the winter, the logs being skidded onto the ice and then floated from lake to lake in the spring melt. Young men corralling the logs into the chute, dislodging the stubborn ones, missteps resulting in getting dunked and sometimes death. Men, horses and ingenuity being used to get the logs to the railway and back to civilization.

What other unexpected sights and sounds would we experience before our trip was done?

Click here for the next story in this series:
http://travellingwithsteveandmarlene.blogspot.ca/2012/10/other-sounds-in-park.html