We had checked the weather before departure - clear and hot all weekend. We rented canoes - $40 a day. We brought food - each person was assigned one meal. We were six women, geared for camping in the wilderness. The newcomers were very fine women of good humour and enthusiasm. I had nothing to worry about. Our destination: Rock Dunder, a property owned by a land trust near Kingston. This was a field visit of sorts. Rock Dunder is one of the projects that my friend's environmental fund gave money to earlier this year.
We arrived at the town dock in two cars. The director of the land trust told us our camp site is a 10-minute paddle from the dock, directly across from the first cottage. 10 minutes? cottage?
In fact, the paddle was no more than 5 minutes. From our site, we could see the dock, as well as four other cottages across the lake. The site had a huge rock that served as our patio. We sat on it often and dubbed it Siren Rock. The rock had marshy water on one side, and zebra musselled rocks and seaweeds on the other.
No sooner had we pitched our tents when motorized boats came screaming down the channel to the city dock, waterskiiers were towed by smaller crafts, and fishing trawlies wafted across the lake surface. I could see this was going to be an atypical camping trip. I mean, we were 5 minutes away from cars that could take us into restaurants in Kingston.
We went swimming. The water was warm, no, hot. It was like swimming in soup, it was hardly refreshing. Still, it's a giant bathtub I wouldn't have access to in the city.
Finally, we settled down to a hearty bowl of soup and saw this spectacular sky across from us.
How does it go? Red skies at night, sailors' delight?
The night was a disquiet one. Despite being deet-soaked and covered in netting, mosquitoes buzzed at my ears, making sleep under the open sky impossible. I finally crawled back into the tent where the buzzing stopped and I fell asleep to the sound of two frogs burping to each other, loons calling, and a large animal splashing in the water.
The next morning, the sky was overcast. We made french toast and coffee, packed our lunch, then headed out to climb Rock Dunder. We paddled an hour to the end of the bay and explored a cave. I had not brought my camera on this excursion so I have no pictures of the cave. But many before us had come to this same spot, climbed in, and wrote their names in huge letters across the cave. Brad had been there, so had Joannie, as had Kyle.
Then we went along the steep and weedy side of a moutain-like coast till we saw an orange tag tied to a tree. That was our entrance to the Rock. This was also the spot where we had our water mishap. Our budding Bug Lady fell in the water when we disembarked from the canoe. Ah but she was none the worse for wear. She simply said, A little water never hurt anyone.
Our Bird Song Lady walks with a cane. She hesitated about climbing the Rock. But we were there and she felt brave so she climbed the Rock all the way, reaching for a helping arm occasionally for balance.
At the top, we came out to an incredible field of large rocks, with blueberry, chokeberry and blackberry bushes growing in crevices. The vista looked down to the waters and trees of Whitefish Lake. This is what we had come for - to see this magnificent view from atop this rock.
Bug Lady and I pranced from boulder to boulder, peering over the edges to see whether the rock plunged down to your death or to the next rock. Soon, we realized we were the only two running around. The other four stood way back where the berry bushes grew, clustered together. Ha, they're afraid of heights, though neither Bug Lady nor I pointed that out to our companions.
We picked berries for breakfast, ate our lunch, then got back into the canoe. It rained for the rest of the day.
Back at camp, Bug Lady and Tree Hugger volunteered to go pump for drinking water in the rain. They took the filtration gear and set out in the canoe. Twenty minutes later they were back, with the 5-gallon jug filled with cold water. Wow, did they pump fast! No, they laughed. They saw some cottagers out on their dock so they simply paddled up and asked for water. The cottage owners were happy to help out as they receive water service from Kingston. Besides, how could they deny water to women in the rain.
All in all, it was a good trip, mostly because the company was great fun. Though we did comment that it wasn't exactly wilderness camping we were doing. It was more like spa camping. But next year, next year, we go to Killarney where only Northen Lights and flash lights may shine at night.
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