Summer's Last Paddle

Labour Day ... last day of summer holidays for most kids here in Ontario.  While families were all driving home from cottage country (generally referred to as "up north" by people living in the Greater Toronto Area), my husband and I were headed in the opposite direction. North to Algonquin Park ... again! This time to collect our son and bring him home for a year of college.

The old sign welcoming us to the park along Hwy 60

 Normally, we drive straight to our campground when visiting the park, but this time we had to purchase a day pass since we planned to do a little canoeing while waiting for our son to finish work at 5:00 p.m. This is a huge sign at the main park office as you enter the park. 

We decided to take the canoe along Oxtongue River, which is a beautiful twisting river, easily accessed from the highway. We saw quite a few cars in the parking lot (the lot is also an access point for an overnight hiking trail), but we didn't pass anyone along the river.

We couldn't ask for a more beautiful day! The sky was so blue! The air was clear with a steady breeze that rippled the water and cooled our faces. It's hard to say goodbye to the park when the weather is this nice. I'll bet a lot of other people felt the same. We've had excellent weather all summer!

After a while, though, that sun was feeling pretty hot! And that river seemed to be never-ending twists and turns. Finally I said to my husband "Do you think you'd rather be paddling on a lake rather than this river?". He quickly agreed. The river can get a bit stifling and closed in on a hot day, and it was too hot for any wildlife viewing. We turned around, and paddled very swiftly back to the parking lot ... so swiftly as the current just swept us along! It was great :)

The bottom of this river is almost entirely covered in this luxurious green water plant. It's like a long flowing grass, but it looks like flowing mermaid's hair as the current sweeps it back and forth. Very mesmerizing to watch, but rather difficult to photograph through the water. It never stopped moving with the current.

And although the river is pretty, it can also get a bit repetitive, and all my photos were starting to look the same. Haven't we been around this corner before?!

Once back at the truck, we loaded up the canoe, drove down the highway for a few kilometers and tossed the canoe back into the waters at Source Lake. Source Lake is a very pretty lake dotted with a few cottages. It's not heavily filled with cottages, which is nice, and there is also a kids camp on one of the islands. Yesterday it was dead quiet. The parking lot was almost empty, and several people were packing up their cars to head home. Usually there are quite a few motor boats across the lake. The water was fairly calm, but there was a good breeze picking up the waves a bit more. We've often had high waves on this lake when we've paddled around it before. A couple of times we had to just turn back to shore when the waves got too wild. It was good yesterday, however, and the waves were rolling up from behind us as we paddled back to the lot at the end of our trip. You could really feel them coming up under the boat! A bit weird.

A small rock garden enjoying summer's last kiss

 There were five loons on the lake, one of them still a baby. This adult loon was softly calling her mate, but he wasn't answering her. The photos aren't that great because we were quite a distance away.

The water was just sparkling off the waves!!

The few cottages on this lake are very rustic and simple. They are set back a bit from the water, but there isn't a huge amount of trees cleared off the lots either which is nice. Very inconspicuous and so nestled into the trees. This one has a nice stone chimney and the late afternoon sun was streaming in through one of the windows. A nice location on a small point ... you would get the morning and evening sun. 

We stopped at the old railway line at the top of the lake. The rails have all been pulled up years ago, but it would be nice if this was opened up properly as a walking or bike trail. There is another bike trail along a portion of the railway line bordering Lake of Two Rivers which is a really nice and easy trail. The only other trail in the park is a difficult mountain bike trail ... one loop of which we did years ago (and my husband says will never do again!).

looking back across the lake from the railway line

can you see Cody's shadow? 

By the time we paddled back to the truck, it was time to meet our son at the Portage Store. He was still working when we came down to the outfitters ... lugging canoes back to storage. Normally those storage racks are fairly empty through the summer, but now with the last day they are filled up again. Not a bad location to work, eh? He lived here on Canoe Lake all summer too.

 

That's my boy under the canoe :)

There is a restaurant on the top floor. We visit once during our summer camping for a delicious hamburger and milk shake.

Here's my son flipping the canoe ... up onto his legs, then ...

... kicking it up with his knee onto his shoulders ...

"Canoe Head"

"Hi Mom"

It's a tradition at the store that as each person finishes their final shift of the summer, they are tossed off the dock and into the lake. Finally, my son finished his shift and we saw him taking off his shoes ... uh oh! Some guys escorted him to the end of the dock ...

Then, one ...

two ...

three!!

He ran back to give them all a nice wet hug goodbye.

And that was it. We packed up his stuff, squashed us all into the truck with the dog and hit the highway. We were so late getting on the road that all the campers had already left the park long ago, so the first highway was empty. After we stopped for a quick bite to eat in Huntsville, we decided not to go to Plan B (backroads) and continued along the major highway south, which was also relatively empty, thank goodness! A very quick and non-stressful drive home.

Thanks for stopping by!

Wendy

Goodbye Moose, until a few more weeks when we travel back for our fall camping!

Bringing Home the Boy

Our final weekend of summer. This is a long weekend for us here in Ontario, and kids return to school on Tuesday. My son starts his first year of college on Tuesday ... one day after he returns from two months working in Algonquin Park. Poor kid. It's going to be hard enough on him to move back home with his parents, but to have to start up in college the next day as well? Oh boy.

We're picking him up on Monday. Holiday Monday. The busiest travelling day this side of Christmas! And he works until 5:00 p.m. It's going to be a nice drive up to our beloved park, but the drive home will be insane. We already have an alternate route mapped out, but I know even the backroads will be full of impatient drivers trying to make it back to the city at a decent hour.

While we were on vacation in August (after our camping trip in Algonquin), we worked on our son's bedroom as a surprise for him. He knows we're working on it, but he doesn't know what we're doing. He did choose the paint colours (grey & orange), but that was all the input we asked for. This is what it looked like when he left in June:

He is a collector of many things, and he has many interests. But the last couple of years he has hinted that he would like to empty his room of all this clutter (a common desire here in my home!). We emptied the room to start on the transformation.

First the small cupboard had to be changed. My husband smashed out the framing for the original doorway.

An electrician was called in to fit in a new outlet at the back so that we could plug TV and other devices without having the cords dangling over the wall (as they did before). The electrical cord is hanging there with the outlet attached on the end. This will be fitted onto the back of the cabinet my husband made. My husband framed the new opening with 2x4s again all the way around.

It's a really good-sized cupboard!

Then he built up three separate units out of MDF, which I painted a light grey with bright orange on the back. Cool, right? And now you can also see my lovely paint job of the grey walls. All the trim was painted white again too.

Once all the front trim was in place (covering the rough edges of the MDF), I had to do some touch-up painting to cover all the nail holes. This unit is very secure and fastened onto the 2x4 framing boards that were fit into the opening.

A Friday night trip to IKEA (not something I would recommend this close to back to school...lots of university students/parents picking up stuff for their kids!!), and we picked up a roller blind with black-out backing. This thing really blocks any light coming into the room! 

A couple of nice details like the matte silver light switch and outlet covers we found at Lowe's. I'm sure my son will be glad the ceramic dinosaur light switch cover is gone!

I plan on making his favourite chocolate chip cookies to go in his Tardis cookie jar :)

We're down to the wire now, and my husband put the final molding around the entire unit. I think it looks fantastic! I can't believe the transformation with just this cupboard. My son is going to be so thrilled when he sees this! It's the highlight of the room. We even bought a strip of LED lights that glow different colours with a remote control. We'll stick that down behind the TV ... one of the colours is ORANGE! Yeah!!

Yesterday and today I worked on another small addition. We want to rearrange the furniture a bit, and this will leave him needing a nightstand beside his bed. We can't decide what to get there, so will leave that up to him to choose something on his own. In the meantime, I had this old stool in my garage and painted it up with grey spray paint to put there for now. I forgot to take a "before" shot, but it was the same in quality as this matching stool (below). My great grandfather made both of them :)

Below is the primer coat. I found a can of grey primer spray paint in the basement! I still have to give it a final coat of the actual colour.

You may notice a glaring discrepancy between his bedroom door (which is new) and his closet doors (which are old). 

I love the new door handles :)

We bought new interior doors for our entire house in August too, and got about half of them painted and installed. Then we realized that we needed to stop work on the doors and get cracking on our son's bedroom instead. The bedroom doors were all installed, but the closet doors here are still waiting to be painted and installed. Once this room is back together, we can focus on the door painting again and it will complete the room. 

the closet doors

Also, there's the matter of inside the closet ... care to see?

Yep, loads of carefully organized, but no longer used toys and other boy things. Not something anyone wants to deal with, but once your kid turns 18, I don't think we have the right to purge these treasures for him. Do you? I used to go through my kids' toys all the time and purge since we have limited storage space here. Now, however, we feel we have to ask permission first. I hope a lot of it goes out the door, but I know there are some things too good to lose (Lego, Brio & Playmobil!). It will all have to await its fate until my son settles into his new college routine though. Thankfully, he is staying home as the college he is attending is within walking distance of home ... one reason why we wanted to give him a new room since he won't have the same adventures as my daughter with living away from home for four years.

We still have a few details to work through. A ceiling fan has been chosen, but not yet purchased. It matches the finish of the new doorknobs perfectly! Also I may or may not make some narrow curtain panels to hang on either side of the blind. The closet doors need painting and installing. We also are still looking for bedding. I found some bright orange sheets that match the cupboard paint colour, but am still on the lookout for a new duvet cover in black or grey.

I'll show the final reveal photos when we get everything back in place. Thanks for stopping by today!

Wendy