Canoeing to the spa, part II

So we were on the water by about 4 pm the first day, setting us well behind schedule. The alarm went off at 6 am the next morning, so that we could get in a 12-hour day in order to catch up.

Vacation, like I said.

All was going well until we reached a portage and had a big fight over how to carry the canoe up a hill. By mid-afternoon, we had reached the small creek section of the trip. Ahead was about 3 km of rapids, beaver dams and marsh.

The lady at Le Domaine had warned us about this section since the water was low and the rapids might be impassable (if there's no water, rapids are just rocks that you can't canoe over). But she didn't warn us enough. (Or maybe she did--the warning was in French. What's French for "five million beaver dams"?)

It took 5 hours for us to travel about 3 km up the creek. We had to literally carry the canoe over the rocks. This often meant taking all the gear out of the canoe first and leaving it perched on rocks in the midst of the stream. It could have also easily entailed smashing a huge hole in the bottom of the canoe, but somehow we managed to get it out of there in one piece.

Some of these rapids had portages (walking trails) around them, but perhaps due to big emotional blow-up on the day's first portage, we almost always forewent these in favor of our dragging-canoe-on-rocks technique.

As it grew dark, we realized we'd have to camp on the creek somewhere and abandon our plan to make it out of the creek and into the next big lake that day. There was only one campsite for mile around--that at the Lake of Stimulus (Lac du Stimulus) which could have also been named 'Mosquito-Infested Marsh of Stimulus'. When we finally reached it, it began to rain. While unloading the canoe, we sighted the World's Largest Leech (red-spotted) heading for our ankles. On shore, we discovered no picnic table. We couldn't drink the lake water due to nearby beavers, which could give us beaver fever, and had to sit in the dirt. Our food got all muddy. Then: We had to eat muddy smores. There was no stimulus, or at least, no good stimulus.

The next day I woke up, left the tent and saw a moose run off into the Lake of Stimulus. That was pretty cool.

But aside from the moose, despair set in. We would have to do a 20-hour day to make up the lost time. We had miles and miles of canoing and muddy food eating ahead of us.

But then, CC won my undying love forever by saying, 'Why don't we forget about the rest of the trip and go to the spa?'

These pictures (above, below) were taken after we had decided to bag the rest of the trip in favor of the spa. Note that the rain finally stopped. Happy times ensued.

But, oh reader, how would intrepid canoers get to the spa with only one day of vacation left? We were many miles from anything remotely spa-like. The nearest shower was at Le Domaine, two day's canoe and an hour's car ride away.