We have just returned from our annual camping trip to Voyagers National Park. Luckily we live just 2 hours away, so we feel pretty lucky to not have a 7 hour drive like some urbanites have! This is not the pansy type of camping where you pull your motor home, or pop up camper into a state park and have neighbors on every side. No, this is not even the luxurious "car camping" that we sometimes do while on driving trips. However, this is NOT as difficult as back-packing, or even canoeing into the boundry waters (done that, not very good at being a mule pack...) This is the trip where you pack everything into your boat and motor out onto the lake and it's many, many inlets and islands and find a site to set up camp. The sites are secluded and you might hear other people occasionally, but unless they happen to motor by your island, you don't see them. In past years, we've spent 2, 3, even 4 hours in the boat trying to find a site that's open. After several years, we've now discovered that what seems to work best is to go in when most people are going out. So Sunday is the day we picked this year, and we were lucky (?) to have windy, rainy weather and sure enough, as we sat in the car for an hour waiting for the rain to let up...boat after boat was pulling out and driving away. We were confident that we'd have the pick of our sites! So as the rain was turning into light sprinkles, we doned our rain gear. (I especially like the way the BLAZE YELLOW gives my complexion that washed out look!) After only 1 hour we did find a site just as someone was leaving it. By this time the sun was peeking out and we busily set up our camp. Wade and Eddie went for a swim and it was truly beautiful. However, that night the wind picked up and it cooled to about 50 degrees. However, we were quite toasty in the tent, and didn't get flooded out from the rain showers. The only thing that DID get flooded out was the path to the throne...the latrine...the privy...00....outdoor toilet... So we decided to pack up and find a better site that was out of the wind...and we did find a better site, only because the path to the privy was on dry land and the site was not as swampy. But the wind persisted.
So to occupy our day we headed north to Canada and made our annual trip to the Kettle Falls Hotel. We spent time there playing games outside, having lunch, and of course played pool in their crooked little bar. You can only get to this historic hotel by boat and it's history is as a stop-over for voyagers on their trading routes. It's always the highlight of our trip! And I suppose I should mention the fishing! This year Eddie holds the record for the largest fish, a 17" large mouth bass. He's not much for fishing (not enough action for a 12 year old) but truly LOVED the action of landing this fighter! I regret that I didn't get a picture to capture that smile! Our last night there was quite windy and 45 degrees. I'm so glad I brought that stocking cap! And this is August? Maybe we would have fared better in September. We woke up and decided to get out quick while the "gettin was good". We wasted no time and quickly packed up and boated out. It was a choppy ride, but we made it in record time...1 1/2 hours from when we woke up to when we got back to our rig! We all agreed that it wasn't the best camping trip we've had, but it also wasn't the worst! We had great campfires, caught big fish, didn't get wet or snowed on, didn't have any bears or coons raid our camp site and played a lot of card games (kings in the corner) and farkel! A pretty good family bonding time. Our reward was having a big, greasy breakfast on our way home! And even with the windy, cold, rainy weather, I still think Voyagers is heaven on earth!
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