You're not well (I do the same thing)

No experience, but they're at the top of my list for a replacement bag. They have an office in Montreal (local to me) where I have called for information. They were courteous and knowledgeable about their products.

Shirley / Ancona?

A nice Sunday morning read, Dave - thanks.

When I was quite young, my family would spend the weekend at my grandparents' house. We'd watch The Irish Rovers every Saturday and Gran would sing Puff the Magic Dragon to me as a lullaby. 

Well at least now I know what one looks like.

We dropped Agnes off at the boarder Monday night, got home, packed the truck, and loaded the canoe. The plan was to leave by 6 but we were a bit slow and it was 7:30 when we pulled out. Seeing as how it was a work day for most, we decided to avoid Ottawa and the 417 and opted to take the 401 to the 416. This added about 30 minutes to our trip but was a much nicer drive. Between gas/coffee and a stop at the Portage Store, we arrived at Achray around 11:30. On Grand by 12:15, we made our way to the Stratton portage. It always looks easier on the map, but we found it without too much trouble. Also, being the maiden (loaded) voyage of our Freedom 17’, I was a bit concerned about how it would handle. Ever so slightly tender at rest, but very confidence-inspiring underway. It cut through the waves, which was fine for today but I could see this being a problem in poorer conditions. Both Stratton and Grand were larger than I expected - that’s when I realized that the map was scaled differently on the section we were using: the Highway 60 corridor map - the area with which I have experience - was scaled 1:75000 whereas the Achray/overview map was scaled 1:140000.  We made St. Andrews and began looking for a site. The one I had hoped for (3, 4?) was taken so we continued paddling toward High Falls and settled on site 7 - the one with the druid-inspired fire pit.


Not great in terms of flat tent spots, but we made it work. The thunderbox location required advanced planning. Home made, dehydrated chili for supper, a nightcap of Basil Hayden, and off to bed. This was our first trip in 3 years so our tear-down game was a bit off and were on the water by a “late-ish” 8:30.


The St. Andrews - Rouge/Tarn portage is not visible from the lake - it’s hidden behind a couple of large rocks

Good to hear, yellowcanoe - online reports are pretty sparse.

And solos - I know, but given this week's warm forecast I'd rather be sorry I brought it than sorry I didn't.

I logged in to the reservation site to confirm I had correctly entered my vehicle's plate number (something I clearly remember doing). I couldn't find anywhere to do that for the specific reservation, so I checked my profile section. There I found a plate belonging to a vehicle I haven't owned in a few years. I updated it, but I'm wondering where the original booking plate number went.

Rob wrote:

scratchypants wrote:

Let's lighten it up a bit. What's the consensus on worms?

The local pickerel and trout population love them, especially when presenred at the end of a single hook pickerel rig.

Tongue in cheek, Rob. There's a local stream here where if you showed up with a spinning rig you'd be shamed back to your vehicle.

Edit: to clarify, I'm an avid spinning angler and have no shame stacking the odds in my favour.