Mother and Son Overnight to Buzzard Lake – Part 1

Last July my son and I went on our first overnight canoe trip to a local park without my hubby. I wanted to test out his skills in our canoe and how he’d handle carrying gear on a portage. He was not a very strong paddler so I knew we had to keep the paddling distance short, but I was pleased to see how well he handled it and could tell that he’d be able to take on a more challenging trip this year.

So, with school out for the summer and the inevitable moans of “I’m bored, what are we going to do today?!”, I booked an overnight trip to Kawartha Highlands Provincial Park for the Tuesday after the Canada Day long weekend. We started on Long Lake, paddled to the portage into Buzzard Lake and stayed on a site near the south end of Buzzard – a roughly 3 hour paddle, making it just over double our trip from last year.

I had packed most of the gear over the weekend, leaving our food and last minute items for the morning of the trip. On Tuesday morning everything was ready to go, but what I did not expect – and what almost ended this trip before it started – was my son passing out while walking into the kitchen for breakfast! I guess staying out late three nights in a row for fireworks (plus a killer concert by The Chachkies!) took it’s toll. He was clearly showing signs of exhaustion, although he rarely admits to being tired, so I had him drink some water and go back to sleep.

Around lunch time, he finally arose from his room and asked if we were still going to go camping – he was actually excited to go, so although I was hesitant and let him know we did not have to go, he assured me he felt up to it – which for him means he’s good to go. If he’s not up to something he lets us know!

With that I packed up the food, loaded the gear into the car, and strapped on the canoe, and off we went. It was around 4:30 that evening when we arrived at the Long Lake access parking lot – a lot later than expected, so we quickly got the gear ready and started our paddle. With the wind in our faces, we were off like a slow moving snail (this seems to be a reoccurring thing for my trips this summer).

I don’t think Hayden was still at 100% and, as expected, I was doing most of the paddling, but as I’ve mentioned before I am not a strong solo paddler. Just in case, when out with Hayden, I actually sit in our canoe’s third seat – positioned in the solo spot – so I have more control if he decided he was done paddling entirely. Even when we started I found myself mentioning a few times that we could turn back. He flatly said “No, I’m fine”, so on we went.

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One thing that really made me smile was the fact that he was checking the map and orienting himself as to where we were, where the portage was located, how far we had paddled, and how much further it was going to be. I had to teach him a few location techniques like identifying a cottage by the grey spot on the map with a building, etc., but he picked it up so fast that he would be saying “Oh we are here, we have gone two thirds of the way, only a third left to paddle”. Happy Mommy Moment!

We reached the portage into Buzzard and I was not looking forward to having to walk this twice… I wondered if it was possible to do a single carry and I explained to Hayden what that would mean. I would have to take my backpack (with most of our gear) and the canoe, while he would have to carry his backpack, the water bottles, and the three paddles. He so elegantly said “We can do it. I know you can. Oh but you will also have to carry the bag that has the food. You can just swing that over your arm”. Great… so I get my canoe, bag and food bag. Sadly I have no pictures of this portage trip, but we did it. One carry.

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Buzzard Lake was just as beautiful as I remember from last year when I completed a solo trip. We paddled the lake, while Hayden checked the map and provided directions, with a little bit more ease as the wind was not right in our faces. We arrived on the site just after 7, leaving us with just over and hour before the sun would set behind the trees across the lake from our site. We had a lovely west facing site, which provided us with the light we needed to get our camp chores complete.

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Our NoBugZone was the first thing set up as the deer flies were just horrific. There was no reprieve from them around camp, unless you were in the shelter. Hayden spent some time in there eating his supper while I got the tent all set up. Then we both headed out, equipped with our bug jackets, to look for some firewood. We had about 15 minutes before the suns rays were completely off our site, so we both jumped into the lake for a quick swim. The water was a great temperature and felt so refreshing after a very hot day of paddling.

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Here is another proud mommy moment: while I was getting changed, my son asked if he could get the fire prepped. I’m thinking “sure, get things ready and then I’ll get it lit in a minute.” Next thing I know he not only got the fire ready, but he also lit it himself, AND it was burning great. WOW! I told him how proud I was that he was able to get it all started himself.

On the fire I cooked up some bannock as Hayden kept himself busy roasting a couple of marshmallows. After eating his snacks we enjoyed the evening fire, called out to a couple of loons, and watched a beaver enter our site multiple times to get some food.

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Time was passing fast and around 10 that night we both decided it was time for bed as we were both really tired. As we turned off the light Hayden decided to try to trick me into thinking a bear was clawing at the tent… No dude, I would not fall for that…….

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Come back for part 2 to see how our adventure concluded.