now I know that I'm right here where I was before
We'd done most of the grocery and supply shopping on Thursday night, and not even knowing it was Alexander Keith's birthday on Friday, we stocked up on cans of Keith's for sipping around the campfire. Devin even had these cool foam hats from his, um, lunchtime observance of the date. I felt like a good Maritime patriot, let me tell you.

Getting out of Ottawa ended up being a bit of a nightmare. That damn Queensway, on which we live at the East end, gets pretty congested with all the folks heading anywhere West after work (so, everyone). It was mid-afternoon already, and I'd planned a quick stop at Canadian Tire for some tarp poles. But after an unintentional detour through Quebec (oops!) and inching through traffic for what seemed like ages, we figured we had to be at the Kanata exit. We left the highway, though, and learned we were, in fact, still in Ottawa, albeit the West end.

It was gloriously hot and humid that day - I mention that because it has not been that nice since then.

It was dark when we arrived in Algonquin Park, so we couldn't really take in the scenery that first day. Before night fell, though, we drove through some cute little towns. This is a really beautiful part of the country in these parts, I say. The dark was not daunting, though; I'm getting to the point with the camping that I enjoy the challenge of setting up in the dark or de-camping in the rain (more on that later). We're pretty good at getting organized and it's just so fun to pick the perfect tent location and then arrange the "kitchen" and get the fire started. Fun indeed.

We knew it was going to rain, so our tarp system had to hold. We're a little less experienced with the whole tarp business - Devin's got lots of rope and we get by by improvising and using bungee cords when necessary, but ideally you have to get a set-up that has good drainage (i.e. no men peeing outside the tent!). So that first night was a bit of an experiment, trying to ensure that the tarp was angled just right and fighting with the cheap-ass poles we'd gambled on at Canadian Tire (that's my thumbs-down review on that page). The rain eventually woke us us in the early morning hours. Worrying about whether the poles and tarp were staying put combined with the very bright lightning and very loud thunder ensured that we were wide awake, so we got up to check things and tweak the system. Devin even dug a couple trenches to give the water somewhere to drain. Being huddled in a tent under trees is pretty scary when the thunder and lightning roll in. I was counting the time after a flash before the clap of thunder - it was so very loud but not instantaneous, so I figured we were safe. Man, though.

Thankfully it was not raining later in the morning when we eventually woke up for the second time. We enjoyed a yummy breakfast cooked on the new campstove (we're all fancypants now, don't you know). And then we had an entire day to chill out, which was a little strange since all of our camping outings thus far have been for one night only. It was sorta grey with on-and-off drizzle, so we went for short walks around the campground, purchased a deck of cards, and sat in our "kitchen" trying to remember how to play rummy and crazy eights. It was nice way to spend the afternoon.

That second morning, though, it was c-o-l-d. As they'd forecasted, the temperatures plummeted and it was little tougher to get warm. I'd packed well, though, and had lots of layers to maintain my core temperature. We took our time leaving that day, and that ended up being a bit of a mistake. Another mistake was the taking-down of the tarps before packing everything else, because the skies opened up and the rains poured down on us. We thought we got a lot of rain that first night, but it was nothing compared to what we got hit with this time. The packing was half-done so we left the tarps draped over things to protect as much as possible, and we hunkered down in the tent to wait it out. But you get impatient and figure you may as well be working, so we ended up doing a fair amount of packing in the rain. A lot of pine needles and wet items were shoved into the trunk. Here is the video Devin shot just after we got on the road.



And the rest of my pics are here.  | ¶ 11:56 p.m.