Well, we’re back from our week vacation at the cottage. I couldn’t have asked for a better week, weather-wise, activity-wise and company-wise.

When we first arrived, my sister, her husband and 21 month-old daughter were there, so I got to play with her all Monday, and sit in the sauna with my sister. Can’t complain about that. They left Monday, and we had the cottage to ourselves for the rest of the week!

We canoed around the lake a lot, and surveyed the new damage created by the tornado. The devastation to the trees on the other side of the lake is obvious. A lot of tree tops were chopped off, many trees blown over, and it generally looked sparse and messy. To our surprise, the devastation revealed a beautiful cliff-face that would never have been seen, otherwise. We can now see our cabin from the lake, whereas before you couldn’t because of all the trees (in reverse, we now have a surprising nice view of the lake, due to less trees). In our canoeing we also saw beautiful flowers growing on tree stumps that fell into the lake. Another surprise; life continues after the storm. We ran into the heron a few times, and saw a pair a loons.

We hiked to Ol’ Baldy, which is the view point I climb to every visit as a tradition.

The path was so indistinguishable because of all the fallen trees, I almost got LOST a few times (keep in mind I have tread this path for the past 16 years). We saw MANY intriguing root systems, revealed by trees falling over and bringing the ground with them. We found one root system that was 10 times bigger than me! We found another that folded over and created a cave. Very cool stuff.

Rather than being torn up about the massive changes incurred on Bulpit, we were quite fascinated by it all. Will and I climbed up again, and marked a NEW path to the point, since tree clearance there is probably a low priority for the camp. We felt good about our little project.

We biked 18 kms to the nearby general store, which is always a treat for me. I’ve seen that store change ownership over the past 16 years, but it’s always the same country store. We stocked up on goodies, and ventured back home. The road was quite deceptive, as what we thought was a downhill one way, was actually a downhill the other way, and my perception was all mixed up.
We also biked 34 kms to my old camp, Fraser Lake, getting lost on the way. I have NEVER biked a road SO extreme. The uphills were SO exhausting, we had to walk our bikes up the hills, panting like crazy. The downhills were equally extreme, that we could go as fast as 65-70 km/per hour just COASTING. Needless to say, it was a very tiring trip. But we made it!

We basked in the sun, generally after swimming, after our crazy bike rides, and that’s always a treat. The water was freezing, so the only time we swam was when we were REALLY hot and sweaty. Even then the water was STILL freezing. We canoed out to the floating raft, and I read outloud while Will fished (or attempted to). Didn’t catch anything, but I caught 2 little sunfish for him to use as bait, using a net, and patience.

We saw a 3 ft long snake hiding amongst the lily pads, and chasing frogs to eat. We later saw it eating a huge fish (compared to his mouth). Will also wrestled with a garter snake. We were trying to chase it off the dock, so it wouldn’t get in our way when getting in the canoe. It wasn’t getting the hint, so Will used his paddle to persuade it. Rather than slithering away, which I thought a little garter would do, it lurched at his paddle, mouth open. Will swooped his paddle under the snake and tossed it into the water. It was awesome.

We had a campfire, cooking our hot dogs over it (Mmm, charred hot dogs and buns…..), and later stargazed from our cabin porch. I saw one shooting star, and Will wondered the whole time why we should bother stargazing. “Because it’s beautiful!” I would protest, or “Because we can’t see the stars at home, and it’s nice to see them!”, or I’d get philosophical and say, “Can you believe we are looking right out at the universe, with nothing physical between us? We could be hanging upside down right now!”

A highlight of our week was watching the skidder come in (a huge tractor that is designed to pull heavy trees, for those of you who don’t know what a skidder is, like me once), and pull away HUGE birch trees that had collapsed over the road. We gawked as the guy chainsawed the huge trees, in seconds, completely unafraid of where the tree might land, then attached it to the cord, and drag it away with this massive machine. It tore apart the road, but we didn’t care.

Will and I spent a lot of our time clearing dead trees from around the cottage, clearing paths and making the general area look nicer. I always knew how strong Will was, but I didn’t know he was THIS strong. I watched as he dragged a 25-foot long felled birch tree from under the cabin porch and toss it into the woods like it was a branch! (Okay, he was sweating lots, but he still made it look easy). Meanwhile, I was practically crying because a birch log had rolled over my foot (it’s stilled slightly bruised right now).

So, it was hard getting back to the swing of things back home. But we need to get back to our musical perparations…and oh yeah, our jobs.