CanoeTrip2-Day3
2019-07-07 20:41阅读：
We woke up to a bright, warm, and welcoming sunny
morning. How comforting and promising it was!
Side story: Feng woke me up in the middle of night
with a low but worrisome voice. I opened my eyes to a tent totally
lighted up. I found my heart pounding. Somebody shining a super
flashlight on our tent? what’s happening then? Animal found? Aliens
here? Pull all my bravery together, I opened the tent and looked
out. A super moon, right in front of me, right on top of the lake.
This is why people love travel and to a wild or remote place, even
it’s sometimes tough or even risky. The reward is worth it. It
reminded me the moonlight pine woods we camped in Banff. They were
like dreams.
The sun was so welcoming after a gray and shaky day
on the water. We felt so happy. Feng got up and hang our wet
clothes up to dry. He cooked breakfast the same time. Because all
my clothes were on the line to dry, I had excuse to curl up
in
bed and enjoy a sunny and lazy morning.
After breakfast, we packed and got on the water
again.
If you predicted it was going to be a sunny and
beautiful day from the morning sun, boy, you didn’t know Algonquin
in spring.
The sun disappeared. The wind started again, worse
than yesterday.
A short paddle across Merchant Lake to portage site
was okay. When we got on Happy Isle Lake, the wind was getting
stronger, and we started to see waves. Happy Isle Lake wasn’t
happy. It was mad.
Our little boat was rocking badly. Feng was alerted.
He said we must get to the closest shore. Then we saw a natural
harbor made by a tiny island, and rushed over.
The pine and ceder trees on this tiny island were
mad too. They were crying and roaring. This little calm harbor felt
home. And we were talking about the Chinese name of harbor
港湾. How we sometimes
refer both home and mom as 港湾. What a warm and
comforting word it was, and how much it meant to people who work or
live on sea.
A guy from a nearby campsite spotted us. He waved
and shout to invite us to go over to his place. We must have looked
like terrified birds. But we waved no.
We waited till the wind calm down a bit, and left
the harbor unwillingly. It was still windy. Our boat was still
crashing waves. We’d never been boating like this.
Not long after, we found ourselves looking for shore
again.
We perched at the lake shore, holding on trees to
steady us from blowing away.
We waited and waited, but this was no sign that the
wind would stop.
We tied up the boat to a tree, and climbed up to the
island.
We explored around, and found that we might be able
to drag the boat up and across the woods, and then launch from the
other side of the island. This would avoid the most violent part
around the corner of this island.
Funny that we met the same young people who took the
same water taxi two days ago. That was their campsite. They were
packing to leave.
We struggled over the island with our boat. We joked
that what a unique portage we did.
It was still windy. Our boat rocked over Happy Isle
and finally made it to the long portage.
Feng was exhausted. We both were very tired from the
labor and as well as the scary experience on the
water.
So many people were on this trail. Everybody was
going home. And everyone looked exhausted and untidy.
The trail was muddier from the rain yesterday. I had
to try hard to keep balanced, so try to imagine Feng with the boat
on him and or the other boat carriers.
The water taxi would come and pick us up at 3:30, so
we had planned to paddle the Hailstorm Creek wetland before we went
to the water taxi. Plan was just a plan. At the end, we barely made
it to the pick up point, let alone Hailstorm Creek.
We reached at the water taxi spot at 3:30! can you
believe this?
Totally relieved.
We had hot chocolate at portage store to steady our
shake souls.
