Day 6 - Jeff

Was a fabulous day and arguably the best one yet, hard to believe they can get any better but each one seems to, going with the flow and enjoying every minute of it.

We had an easy 25k paddle to Bobcaygeon, not bad for only 6 hours in the kayak (4.5 paddling) and when I say in, being literal as we didn't step out once until we hit the wharf in Bobcaygeon.

Wish I could say the morning was as good, some damn goose, duck or seagul, not sure which was doing his mating call beside our tent and sounded like a very frustrated bird, I was six seconds from pulling out my bear banger and shooting the little creature, would have been quicker to use the blunt end of my paddle but was afraid I would break it and have to switch to the shorty as Julie stole my long spare. Was able to fall back asleep for a bit but kept dreaming about exploding feathers so got up.

Was at Tim Hortons by 6am. Left Julie to sleep if she could and so I picked up a newspaper and sat at the falls for a bit reading, headed back to camp after and thought Julie was still sleeping so was being quiet reading at the table until I heard the familiar hisssssss of the air mattress deflating, Julie has decided (her free will) that she packs up the tent contents each day, we are getting along perfect so I'm not about to rock the boat, excuse the pun.

We are packed and ready to go before 9am, earliest day yet, I find out later the reason she wants to leave so quick is she wants to shop in Bobcaygeon, like we have enough room, there are no more compartments on the "Bucket" and whatever room we had left over is now filled with my new shorts when I went shopping.

We head out on Sturgeon Lake and it is glass calm and not a boat in sight, would remain like this for 90% of the day, weather was also perfect and like most other days mother nature is being nice, we see the rain clouds part and clear skies ahead, again today we could see the rain off shore but stayed away from us.

Realized about a half hour in that the kayak seat is very comfortable, even if it is just a fiberglass seat with no padding, who knew the mold of the seat was meant to improve posture and comfort, while our comfy thermarest pads are great they actually cause discomfort, well for Julie anyway, once we do away with them Julie is one happy kayaker, this is what enabled us to stay on the water all day.

I also played around with proper paddling by not using the rudder most of the day, Julie tried for a bit but kept going in circles.

She really hit her stride today, got into a rhythm and there was no stopping her, previous days - would stop, let her get ahead then catch up quickly, today I had to work to keep up if I stopped for any reason. The other milestone today was Julie had to use her "on the water" funnel thingy made for little girls to relieve themselves after drinking water all day, I went up about 100 yards so she didn't have stage fright and chuckled at the whole "ballet" dance that appeared to be going on trying to use that contraption, thank god I'm a guy.

All week long Julie has been running into me, cutting me off etc, the joke is that there is 5km of water on either side, do you need to be so close, really? Today she got the hint, stayed so far away most of the day had to yell across to get her attention.

She did notice 3 ants in the bottom of her water bottle and it was funny that she just counted before and after to make sure the same number were there. She had the last laugh, noticed the fresh water I put into my bottle had turned murky, had pineapple juice in the night before and didn't clean proper so it got stanky in the lid of my cup, quick washout and problem solved, other than I'm not sure how much I drank before noticing. Will find out soon I guess if I start throwing up, or worse.

Got to Bobcaygeon around 3:30 and had camp setup by 4, Julie's mom and kids dropped by for surprise visit which was cool and know she was missing the munchkins, we chatted for a bit then decided to do a Tims run, it started to rain a bit but just sprinkled for two minutes and then stopped. I did get my xtra-large and was happy happy, we then spent the next few minutes driving around as Barb/Ms Elkie/Julie's Mom drove around finding the quickest route to Tims on foot, adorable, less than 1/2 km, woohoo, went back for evening stroll tonight and got another shot.

Back to camp then went for a swim with the kids (and to wash up) then socialized for a bit before sending kids on their way, not before off loading 3 bags of food, we can pick em up in Buckhorn tomorrow and Julie wanted more room for shopping items (shaking my head). Actually makes packing easier and boats lighter.

Went for dinner at the local pub then back to camp, busy down here and seems to be a popular spot for local kids to hang out, and hope the barking dog doesn't start again.

Did have my first technical glitch today, thought that selecting point on map would show distance to point based on the route I previously setup, unfortunately it is line of sight, long story short, believed that today was a 15km paddle until the 10k mark then realized another 15 to go, Julie took it well.

If you want to have some fun, walk around Bobcaygeon with a tims and watch how many people ask where it is, then send em the wrong way. I wouldn't do that.

Buckhorn tomorrow 28k and a day, maybe two off from paddling.