AA here, using Lola's account since she will have way more pictures to include in this retroactive blog post.
Another Friday off for AA and with the weather being in full Fall mode, it is too cold to golf. At least for me. So what better way to distract myself from the continuous flow of work emails than to blog about our trip to Northern MB earlier this summer!
Our trip started Tuesday June 29. AA took Monday off and was able to get all the groceries and initial packing done so that Lurch (that's the nickname of the car, given due to its aggressive "launch" out of the garage after initial startup) was ready to go as early as possible the next day. With an 8 hrs drive ahead of us, we wanted to get started before 8:30am, and we succeeded with the first photo of the trip taken at 8:19 with Lola still eating her breakfast in the car:
In Ashern, there was a driver swap and AA was at the wheel until they got to their next stop (for lunch) at Devils Lake. Lunch was good but the bugs were pretty crazy. After stretching our legs for a bit, we got back on the road.
Grand Rapids is pretty close to the half-way point to Thompson, and was a convenient location to stop for gas.
Then, it was the final push to the campground at Paint Lake. We were surprised at how high the water was at the Marina, with water well into the parking lot.
Once at our campsite, we setup tents and were able to relax, not in the confines of the car. I'm not sure Lola agrees that we were able to relax because our campsite was near a couple of Arctic Terns which had a couple babies who were not able to fly yet, but were old enough to be out the nest. As we quickly learned, Terns are very territorial and would swoop down at us, squawking in an attempt to chase us away. They were pretty successful. Eventually, we found a large branch which could keep the birds from hitting you with their wing as they dove at you. But... not before AA got bombed:
The campground was relatively quiet, as expected in the middle of the week. We also were in a bay with electrical power and was next to seasonal campsites so the number of rowdy neighbours was minimal. The power was to keep our recently purchased electric cooler running during the day so that we didn't need to constantly get ice to keep food cold. This worked out great!
We took a short hike to the beach/marina area to check things out after supper and still had lots of daylight left to play games and try to make a fire. Firewood was free at the campground but AA didn't realize that the firewood station would be locked at 8pm, so some scavenging for firewood in the bay was necessary and resulted in some pretty wet wood. The fire the first night wasn't good enough for hotdogs, Lola was pretty disappointed. Plus, it started to rain so we called it a night.
Wednesday (Canada Day!) was a fairly relaxing day. Lola FINALLY woke up at around 10am to have some breakfast. AA had been awake since about 8, after waking up numerous times since 4:30 when it started to get bright outside. After having breakfast and cleaning up, we made our way to Pisew Falls, about 30 mins from Paint Lake. AA remembered coming here as a kid and was excited to show Lola the falls which are quite spectacular.
After a short hike to see the Grass River, we got back in Lurch and headed back to the campsite for Lunch.
AA was hungry and it had been a couple hours since Lola ate, so she was hungry too. The rain started just before AA was finished bbq'ing the burgers and got to test out his newly purchase rain jacket. It worked well and was certainly "water proof" as opposed to "water resistant" which is what his previous jacket was - he could stand outside in the rain all day and not get wet. Although, that wasn't something he necessarily wanted to do and was hoping that their 10+ year old tent was up to the task of keeping rain outside as opposed to inside. If it wasn't, AA and Lola were prepared as they bought a (cheap) second tent before they left Winnipeg as a redundant sleeping enclosure.
The afternoon was fairly relaxing once the rain stopped, we hiked around the campground some more, exploring the Yurts which could be rented for $75 per night (?). The views from the Yurts would certainly be spectacular, being on a peninsula between the beach and the Marina with no other camping in the vicinity.
After hiking, we spent more time at the campsite, fending off the Terns when we needed to go to the bathroom and playing games in the dining tent. We also got some firewood so that we could roast some hotdogs in the evening. Lola had budgeted eating 2 hotdogs each night and was already 2 hotdogs behind so she was anxious to catch up.
Although it remained overcast in the evening, it was still pretty interesting to see how bright it was, as late as it was. This picture was taken at 9:30, looking as bright as it was at 4:30. With sunset between 10 and 10:30 (I think), it was still pretty light outside well past 11:30.
Thursday was a gorgeous, sunny day. Good thing too because today was golf day! We had a tee time in Thompson in the afternoon, so spent the morning just enjoying the sunshine and calmness.
Golf was pretty good, wet but good. We made the mistake on the first hole of trying to drive the golf cart to our ball on the fairway (well, it was more like the rough for AA). The course was saturate from all the rain the previous two days and the cart wheels were basically acting like slicks, not getting any traction and spinning almost as soon as you tried to pickup some speed. Lesson learned - we would stick to the cart path and walk to our balls from now on.
I'm not sure we could have had a better day for golf - sunny and 24*C.
After golf, we made our way into Thompson to get some gas and some firewood. Although the campground had free firewood, AA's axe wasn't quite able to cut the relatively green wood. At least not without harder ground or a mallet to give more impact. With two bags of firewood in tow, AA and Lola were ready to head back to the campsite for supper.
After supper, AA took his camera on their hike to the small (now island) near the beach. Taking off our shoes, we were able to wade across the water which maybe came to AA's knees. The "island" offered some more views of the lake and since it was cutoff from the main area due to the high water, it was very quiet. There was only a couple other people that AA and Lola saw on their hike.
Friday was a beach day, to enjoy our last full day at the campground. And the weather certainly cooperated. The water, however, was much colder than AA expected but that didn't stop him from going in to rinse off from the previous days without showers.
After supper and more games, AA and Lola went to the beach/peninsula to get some photos of the sunset and, to their surprise, a nearly full moon.
Saturday was the day to head home. AA and Lola got up, made some breakfast and packed up the car, making some pretty good time as they were able to leave by 10:15. The drive home was much the same as the drive North, lots of long, straight road without too much traffic.
It was a great trip and we can't wait for next year to do another northern camping trip maybe near The Pas.
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