Camping and Canoeing in Canada

For Caleb's college graduation, his parents took us on a trip to Ontario a few weeks ago.  (Edit- now a year ago!)  Caleb and his dad's plans started with looking on Google Earth for a place to visit.  They found the English River, which flows into Barrel Lake, and went from there.  I'm so glad we drove the whole way and got to see all of the sights along the way.  Once we arrived in Canada, we picked up our canoes in Thunder Bay, then spent the night in Ignace before beginning our adventure.

The scenery was absolutely stunning, obviously.  Once we left the camp in our canoes, the only signs of other human life we saw before we got picked up were a few motor boaters each day, and one island that was courteously furnished with a port-o-potty and a lawn chair with an unopened drink in the cupholder.  (The polite Canadian stereotype is apparently true!)  We couldn't see a road, a house, a dock, power lines, nothing.  Of course we didn't have cell signal either, which was one of my favorite parts.  It was so refreshing to disconnect.

Everything we needed for camping, fishing, and eating was carried in our two canoes.  Camp meals were delicious.  Each morning for breakfast we had sausage or bacon, eggs, potatoes, and biscuits.  All of our other meals were either peanut butter crackers or freshly caught and fried fish with veggies!  We dined on pike, small mouth bass, yellow perch, and walleye.  It rained on us a couple of times, which required a homemade clothesline to dry out our clothes.  The rain is mild in comparison to hardships we could have faced.  We all felt the hand of the Lord over us the entire week- providing places for us to camp, plenty of food, and nearly perfect weather.