Date: Thursday May 7, 2015
Weather: Sunny and breezy. High of 20 degrees Celsius.
Distance: ~7km
We took advantage of the warm morning to dry some dewy gear before hopping on the water heading towards the town of Killarney for one last paddle.
I woke up overnight at some point and found silver moonlight streaming into our tent. Mystery two solved. This must have been the mysterious blue light Irene had seen at the bottom of the tent the night before. I fell back to sleep quickly and we awoke just before 8am. We opted to tear down most of camp before starting breakfast so that it could dry in the sunshine before packing it away for the long trip back to Toronto.
Once the gear was sorted out, I boiled some water for oatmeal and coffee. As I finished my coffee, I packed up the rest of my belongings. The fly was now dry as were my overbag and my Thermarest. We packed up the kayaks as efficiently as we had on Tuesday, made even easier by having less food to take with us.
It was breezier today on the water and the channel had considerably more chop than it had the previous two days. We were grateful our long paddling day wasn’t today but we weren’t ready to head right in to the take-out yet. As we headed in the direction of the town of Killarney, we passed by the mouth of the Chikanishing, watched a beaver swim beneath Irene’s kayak, and pulled into a large, calm inlet to explore. Three river otters appeared to simultaneously playing, fighting, and trying to mate with one another. They moved quickly between the islands of the inlet and we kept our distance. We made our way back to the mouth of the Chikanishing, spotting our first sea kayakers in the three days we had been out on the water. As we travelled up the creek, I listened to the bullfrogs and noticed that the buds on the trees were that much bigger than they were on Tuesday. We landed as noon and had completely unpacked, repacked the car, and dropped off our gear to Killarney Outfitters by 1pm. Speedy!
As I didn’t want to hit Toronto right at rush hour, I drove Irene into Killarney where everyone looked like they were readying their businesses for the start of tourist season and then over to the lighthouse that I loved photographing in the fall. By 1:30pm we were on the road home to Toronto with only a pit stop in Parry Sound for a late lunch to break up the trip.
All in all, a fabulous trip that was too short in retrospect but hopefully will become an annual tradition.
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Up for discussion: Do you have anyone you try to trip with at least once a year?
Kate Monahan Outdoors 