Another crazy (studid?!) thing that happened in our canoe adventures in Canada:
We decided to venture forth into the Canadian wilderness north and east of Michigan by spending a few days in Missinabi Park. We loaded our gear, food and our dog, Tan-Tan and our trusty Grumman canoe and headed to one of our favorite places.
After we canoed down stream for many of miles and portaged a falls, we set up camp on the shore of the lake. It had been rainy and we were cold. After first chopping a few trees down in order to set up our tent, we started a fire. We literally carved our camp site out of the forest .. but being novices in our early twenties, we didn't realize what our deeds could do. Once the first started, the sparks flew upward and landed on nearby tree branches, thus igniting all the surrounding small trees. Had it not been for the fact that it had rained before we arrived, we would have started a humongeous forest fire and we would have been trapped within! Luckily, the damp trees didn't catch and we breathed a sign of relief!
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Bicycle guards are meant to guard!
I was a new mother of 12 months, give or take a few months...
Larry and I lived at Interlochen Arts Academy in northern lower Michigan..in a small house in the middle of a state park. The setting was ideal for us...we could swim, bike, hike, cross country ski, picnic, hunt mushrooms, etc.. anytime we wanted. The setting was so far removed from a town that a book mobile stopped periodically..well, one a month...at the local post office. Biking was a wonderful exercise for me during that time because I could get "out" into God's wonderful creation most anytime and it was a sure-fire way of soothing my son, Davin, to sleep when he was so wide awake and I was exhausted.
I regularily rode bicycle. I loved it and it helped keep my weight down.
One day I rode bic to the Post Office to get books from the Book Mobile.. Davin on the kid seat at the back of bike. This bike seat I had purchased at a yard sale; I was proud that I found such a buy! However, as an inexperienced mother, I didn't realize that the bike seat had so protective guards where the feet rested.
When I was leaving the post office, a patron noticed the bike seat without guards for the feet and inquired about the fact that my child was unprotected. I scoofed at her comment, telling her that in all my riding, I never had an accident with his feet catching in the spokes of the tires.
I existed the post office, rode approximately 100 yards and was abuptly stopped and knocked off the bike, landing on the edge of the road in the dirt! My sons feet had become tangled in the spokes of the tire! I panicked!
I thought I broke his ankle and immediately called my husband to come pick up us. He did and off we went to the nearest city doctor (25 miles away) for an emergency visit. Nothing broken, he said! Whew! I said!
I learned my lesson in one frightening bike ride! Never again did I use that unguarded bike seat.
Larry and I lived at Interlochen Arts Academy in northern lower Michigan..in a small house in the middle of a state park. The setting was ideal for us...we could swim, bike, hike, cross country ski, picnic, hunt mushrooms, etc.. anytime we wanted. The setting was so far removed from a town that a book mobile stopped periodically..well, one a month...at the local post office. Biking was a wonderful exercise for me during that time because I could get "out" into God's wonderful creation most anytime and it was a sure-fire way of soothing my son, Davin, to sleep when he was so wide awake and I was exhausted.
I regularily rode bicycle. I loved it and it helped keep my weight down.
One day I rode bic to the Post Office to get books from the Book Mobile.. Davin on the kid seat at the back of bike. This bike seat I had purchased at a yard sale; I was proud that I found such a buy! However, as an inexperienced mother, I didn't realize that the bike seat had so protective guards where the feet rested.
When I was leaving the post office, a patron noticed the bike seat without guards for the feet and inquired about the fact that my child was unprotected. I scoofed at her comment, telling her that in all my riding, I never had an accident with his feet catching in the spokes of the tires.
I existed the post office, rode approximately 100 yards and was abuptly stopped and knocked off the bike, landing on the edge of the road in the dirt! My sons feet had become tangled in the spokes of the tire! I panicked!
I thought I broke his ankle and immediately called my husband to come pick up us. He did and off we went to the nearest city doctor (25 miles away) for an emergency visit. Nothing broken, he said! Whew! I said!
I learned my lesson in one frightening bike ride! Never again did I use that unguarded bike seat.
Three things I learned...
My husband, Larry, and I were great canoe enthusiasts in our younger years. Having no children, married for a number of years, and free during the summer months, we were canoe pals with two other childless couples. When Royden and Carol, and Gleo and Pam asked us to join them on a canoe trip into Canada's wilds, we gladly accepted. We packed, planned and eagerly looked forward to our adventure. At Wawa, Canada, we parked our cars in the train parking lot and boarded the train..with 3 canoes...which were to carry us to the land of water and wilderness, and LOTS OF FISHING...northward to Lake Wabatongushi.
On a clear sun-shiny day, we disembarked from the train after it made "our" stop along the route to the town many hundreds of miles north. Once the train continued on, we were left surrounded by the vast wilderness and lots of water! Not a sole was in sight..no wild life, no humans...nothing! We had simply made a stop along the vast miles of track tracks to find our camping site "somewhere out there on the shore of the big lake."
We found a site for our tent on an island... Dog Island, evidently where in the past, a man had kept his dogs while training them.
One night when the weather changed from sunny to stormy, and when Larry became ill with a sore throat, we decided to transverse the rough waters to a cabin on the far east side of the lake. The reason for this transverse was simply to "get warm" and give Larry a respite from the cold of the tent! Off we three couples paddled in the canoes. Half way across the lake the storm arrived with waters that became rough..waves that were high and lightening which flashed all around us. Now bear in mind that we had brought our ALUMINUM Grumman canoe with us! NOT THE PLACE TO BE IN A LIGHTENING STORM!! When we arrived at the cabin in the wilderness across the lake, a French couple invited us to enter their one room cabin with wood stove roaring. We stood around the stove shivering with cold and simply looked at our hosts..they couldn't speak English nor could we speak French. But somehow, we were able to communicate that Larry was sick and we needed to get him warm.
After a short time, we decided that this was not entirely a welcome situation so decided it was time to head back to our camp. No wonder the French couple were concerned for our safety when they tried to tell us "NON, NON, ..." when we decided to leave...at the time we couldn't see why we shouldn't go; but we NOW know that you don't traverse a lake in an aluminun canoe when lightening is flashing all around.. We did make it back to camp but in retrospect, we never will do such a stupid thing again..
I imagine the French couple told their story over and over of the stupid Americans who transversed a lake in a storm!
On a clear sun-shiny day, we disembarked from the train after it made "our" stop along the route to the town many hundreds of miles north. Once the train continued on, we were left surrounded by the vast wilderness and lots of water! Not a sole was in sight..no wild life, no humans...nothing! We had simply made a stop along the vast miles of track tracks to find our camping site "somewhere out there on the shore of the big lake."
We found a site for our tent on an island... Dog Island, evidently where in the past, a man had kept his dogs while training them.
One night when the weather changed from sunny to stormy, and when Larry became ill with a sore throat, we decided to transverse the rough waters to a cabin on the far east side of the lake. The reason for this transverse was simply to "get warm" and give Larry a respite from the cold of the tent! Off we three couples paddled in the canoes. Half way across the lake the storm arrived with waters that became rough..waves that were high and lightening which flashed all around us. Now bear in mind that we had brought our ALUMINUM Grumman canoe with us! NOT THE PLACE TO BE IN A LIGHTENING STORM!! When we arrived at the cabin in the wilderness across the lake, a French couple invited us to enter their one room cabin with wood stove roaring. We stood around the stove shivering with cold and simply looked at our hosts..they couldn't speak English nor could we speak French. But somehow, we were able to communicate that Larry was sick and we needed to get him warm.
After a short time, we decided that this was not entirely a welcome situation so decided it was time to head back to our camp. No wonder the French couple were concerned for our safety when they tried to tell us "NON, NON, ..." when we decided to leave...at the time we couldn't see why we shouldn't go; but we NOW know that you don't traverse a lake in an aluminun canoe when lightening is flashing all around.. We did make it back to camp but in retrospect, we never will do such a stupid thing again..
I imagine the French couple told their story over and over of the stupid Americans who transversed a lake in a storm!
Tuesday, January 22, 2008
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