Lake Hillock and Haps

Alright, now for the canoe trip that I was on. I know this was just under a month ago, but it was such a good get-away-from-it-all vacation. Three words: So much fun. It's great to get out into the outdoors with a great crew of people who enjoy camping and enjoy each other's company! I used the word outdoors to describe our surroundings because I don't like using the word wilderness. It's not as wild as the word implies. You get out there and realize how peaceful, quiet, and tame everything is. Though it could be unpredictable and therefore not in your control, if that is your definition of "wild". But the whole time of our trip was calming and relaxing! Anyways, let's move along! We canoed a cycle of lakes and started with Lake Hillock which is a bit east of Kenora. Beautiful area!

It took me a couple hours to figure out the J stroke again, but I got it somewhat down and was cruising in no time (straight, that is). Most of our time spent was camping which was awesome, we played games, ate, relaxed, told stories, went cliff jumping, and swam. Bob brought a hammock which he said was a two person one, but Josh and I tried it and it wasn't that comfortable! He has it on video, maybe he'll read this and post it. We also quoted Brule's Rules ALL weekend, good times. Side note: I pronounce hammock, ham-mick; while everyone else that was on the trip says ham-mock. I just think it doesn't sound fluid when you say ham-mock, even though it's spelled that way! Maybe it's my Ontario accent creeping in again...

On the way back I looked after the gear as the rest of the crew hiked back to get the trucks. I made a new friend in those two hours. I called him Mortimer (I just love that name):

Life Lesson: Always be aware of where your toes are in regards to the location of a snapping turtle.

Yes, this ol' snapping turtle was brave enough to come out of the lake and chill with me. I believe he just wanted to bite my toes, but nonetheless this big guy was the best turtle ever! I lured him out by dangling my toes in the water and by tossing trail mix in front of him. He was about a foot away and almost pounced!! I would make a sudden movement and he'd retreat slightly but then always returned. I took these pictures with Kristin's camera, here are a bunch of others that she took from the trip! Enjoy!

Here are the two videos I promised. I KNOW I say wilderness in the first one here, so after my little spiel up top about how it doesn't necessarily hold true to what it describes, don't think I'm a hypocrite! It's the default English word for such a location! Step off... The road we were on was a wild ride though! Josh took a bunch of vloggish type vids on the trip too, hopefully he can compile them or somethin' and post them soon!

p.s. On the way back we stopped for dinner at a place called Haps. Great food, but the one thing I remember most was that on the back of the menu it advertized Naughty Bingo, Thursday nights. As the bingo fans we are, we were intrigued... not as good as it sounds. We'll stick with regular bingo.