#backpackingwithdog #familycamping #bushwack
Our family backpacking trip had to change after my trail running and paddling mission to rescue our dog who'd got injured on the trail. We still had plans to do a bushwack hike though. I arrived back at the campsite around noon and we continued our camping trip with the baby by canoe. We were still deep in the backcountry of Killarney Park. Our plan was to camp on Killarney Park's Lake of Three Narrows for two nights before we undertook the roughly 4kms of portaging and some significant paddling to complete our trip. This would give our dog some time to rest his sore leg. The La Cloche Mountains are beautiful and a prominent quartzite ridge runs along the north side of Lake of Three Narrows. I had a Smallmouth Bass on the line as we paddled at the base of this ridge but I lost it right at the boat. Four kilometres later we reached our new campsite.
It was late afternoon when we headed off to do a hike. Buck stayed at our campsite to hold down the fort and rest up his sore leg. We paddled about 300meters and began a bushwack to reach a dry creek bed which we followed to the La Cloche Silhouette Trail. We then followed the trail, hiking with the baby up a and up a very steep incline to reach a lookout. The view was magnificent! We didn't have much time to take it in though as we had to rush back down the hill in order to get back to the canoe before dark. On our way up to the lookout, we'd kept a close watch on the time to make sure we'd have enough time to get back before dark, and we did.
We find that doing things like this with our baby Wesley along makes them a little more nerve-racking! But we never put ourselves in a situation that we can not deal with. And we've found that spending time in nature with him bonds us more closely to our son. It's as if it strikes a primal chord in us.
The following day started out alright but was very windy. After breakfast, the rain came down hard and we hid out in the tent for a while until it subsided. Soon, we left camp and battled headwinds again, paddling about four kilometres to another campsite on the same lake. The weather was miserable and it was tough to get a fire going because everything was soaked, but my wife Tori managed to light it.
The next day I caught a 3.5lb Smallmouth Bass on our paddle to the portage trail. And we began single carrying the 3km trail to reach Killarney Lake. Tori and I swapped our loads mid-way through and Tori carried my heavy pack and the canoe as I carried the baby for about 400 meters. We were still plagued by headwinds on Killarney Lake and all the way back to near where our trip ended on George Lake too for that matter. But the clouds lifted and the winds slowed for the last part of our trip, and we enjoyed some of the beautiful Killarney scenery after the long, final day of our trip.
Tori and I then headed to the near-by village of Killarney where we celebrated our two year wedding anniversary at beautiful Killarney Lodge and enjoyed a steak dinner and a nice bottle of wine. We deserved it!
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