For the past few years, Christina and I have gone on an adventure over the Labour Day long weekend to celebrate my birthday. This year’s celebration was a little different though since I was scheduled to start work before the weekend, thus making our plans not work out for a big trip. So, instead we decided to book our for trip right after my canoe course in Huntsville.
Prior to my course I had stopped at Christina’s place to drop off my food and gear for our trip. This meant that on Friday after my course I did not have to worry about packing anything as it would be ready to go for my arrival at her place.
Friday
I drove the hour from Huntsville to Christina’s house and with a very short turnaround to sort out a few last minute gear items we were off to Temagami where we would meet up with our friend Dave Wilfong, who was set up on a site close to our access point. We were unsure of our travel time, so this helped with the stress of finding a site later that night. Our access point on this trip was Sandy Inlet off of Red Squirrel road. Wow. What a road to try to travel through. It was up and down and very muddy. It’s a good thing that Christina has a vehicle that can handle that kind of terrain.
We made quick work of getting our gear down the portage to Sandy Inlet from the parking lot and we were on the water paddling towards our site. I was surprised at how many people were camped on the beach and glad we were heading away from all the hustle and bustle.
Down the portage we go 
Ready to leave the beach
It only took us a few minutes to reach our site and we were greeted with a big smile from Dave and his dog Mojag. While we set up camp, Dave got the fire roaring and Christina was cooking supper, which was salmon with asparagus and baby potatoes. She really does cook up a great salmon dish which is something I don’t get very often at home.
As the sun went down we all chatted about our adventures we have had so far this summer and enjoyed great conversation. It is so nice to be able to have this time with each other. Christina had planned a new dessert for us to try with the help of Dave. She had brought tortilla wraps to top with peanut butter, chocolate chips, marshmallows and strawberries, which would then be wrapped in foil and cooked over the fire. I decided to have ALL the ingredients on my wrap and OH MY, what a dessert it was. We were all drooling over it and I said that I will have to repeat this on some future trips with my boys.
We all stayed up well into the night talking, enjoying some drinks, and then watched a meteor shower from our rocky site. We had made the decision to not travel to a different site the next night for a couple of reasons, so staying up until almost 2 am that night was not an issue. It may have been late, but well worth it.
Hello camp! 
Dave glowing in the setting sunlight 
Love the sunset 
Mojag just loved sitting with me 
Such a yummy meal 
Dessert wan fantastic!
Saturday
By the time I got up in the morning, Dave and Mojag were gone as they had company arriving by lunch. It was now just Christina and I for the remainder of our weekend. With the help of some info from Dave, we had decided that we would stay on this site and explore the area and do some fishing. Before we even started breakfast that morning we headed out to our rocky point and tried to catch some fish. The goal was to have a fish for supper that evening. I got lucky and had a fish on my line, but it broke free at the last second and I lost it. It was a really big fish as well!!
With no fish we started breakfast which was toast with eggs and bacon. Another staple in our menu as we both love the simplicity of this meal. Once we were both fed, we packed our bags for the day to include our lunch, fishing gear and swimming gear. The plan was to head into a lake nearby to fish, swim and enjoy the beautiful sunny day.
The portage into Eddy lake was challenging, just like all of Temagami, but we made it. This lake is much smaller than we thought it would be so our plan to swim and fish the whole day there had to change. After many casts and no bites on our line we had lunch and then headed back into Lake Temagami to try to fish some more and also go for a swim. On our way back on the portage, we did stop to check out the nearby small waterfall. It was very dry, but I bet in the spring it would be really impressive.
Yummy breakfast with a view 
On our way to explore 
Nar fish.. only weeds 
Pretty falls
Once back on Lake Temagami we found a lovely rocky beach to sit and enjoy the water. I was really impressed with how nice and clear the water was and how warm it was to swim. After being out in the water in Kawartha in late June, most of my lake swims this summer have been much colder.
We paddled around and explored a bit more of our area and even saw a Bald Eagle high in the trees. As we got closer to our site we tried fishing some more and I was successful in catching a bass, however once Christina cleaned it and really looked at the fish, we found spots that were questionable and decided to not eat it. Darn. We were both looking forward to having fish for supper.
She’s so beautiful
Back at camp, with no fish to eat, Christina made her mushroom pasta dish for supper. This was a great alternative and I really enjoyed this meal. I had never had morel or black trumpet mushrooms before, and I was surprised at how tasty of a dish it was that she prepared.
The sun was going down and we had another beautiful sunset across the lake. Before heading to bed we set up a tarp as the weather was going to bring some heavy rain and storms overnight into the morning. We wanted to make sure we had a place to sit if we had to wait out the weather before leaving our site.
Loved this dish 
Good night Temagami
Sunday
Morning arrived fast and the sunrise was a beauty. I watched the sun shine through the trees before starting the morning breakfast prep. I was responsible for making breakfast and we had egg burritos with bacon. With a major storm heading our way, we made quick work of the morning chores, packed up the canoe, and headed back to Sandy Inlet to portage back to the vehicle. Lake Temagami was like glass that morning making our paddle really easy.
Morning sun through the trees 
Good bye campsite 
Water like glass 
Sandy Inlet take out
Surprise ending!! On our way back to Christina’s house we knew we were driving past Tori Baird‘s place. (Check out Tori’s Paddle Like a Girl workshops which she is running throughout the year). We messaged her to see if she was around and lucky for us she was. We stopped in for a small visit, keeping our distance and then headed on our way. It is nice to be able to see friends over the summer and I am very happy and grateful for that.
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