Canada, Eh?

We sent Katie and Micah to Grandkids Camp at Bobi and Papa's house for a week and so Josh and I got to go on a little Canada Camp over the fourth of July weekend with some friends. It was strange to be out of the states on the fourth--but we posted our American flags outside our tents and the campground residents had a little fireworks display for us!

The trip was awesome! One of the highlights for me was seeing a massive bull moose on the way--thankfully we breezed passed him rather than into him! We left Thursday night at 5:30 and arrived at the camp about 2:30 in the morning. We slept sitting upright in the car for an hour or two and then hit the ground running! There was only about 3 and a half hours of dark--from midnight to 3:30 am.Here is the sunrise from our campsite--this is what got us running that early in the morning! That and our friend Don--otherwise known as the energizer bunny!Daisies on the shore of Lake Mameigweiss--we camped just a few feet away. The water was crystal clear--Josh even bathed in it shampoo and all, but at about 40 degrees the water was a bit chilly for me--even though the air temp was pretty warm! I did wash my face in it but that was as brave as I could get!!

Gummeson's Camp--where we stayed was quite the setup. There was no electricity, no phones, no cell service. It made me a bit nervous to be completely out of contact with my kiddos but we managed okay and the Lord kept us all safe :) They kept ice the old fashioned way--since there was no refrigeration they cut huge chunks of lake ice out of the lake in winter and pack it in sawdust in an ice cabin! It stays that way all summer--just like in the Little House on the Prairie books! We used their ice chunks to keep our catch and food cold!Eileen putting out the breakfast fire so we could be on our way!This is one of the portage trails! After we ate breakfast and set up camp we headed out for the trails. You bring everything you need for the day and portage on trails to lakes where there are cribs with boats in them, take a boat ride across a lake then portage more trails to more sites until you end up on the lake you want to fish--carrying the boat motor and gas with you from boat to boat.Donny Jo served as our pack mule for the trip. He carried the bulky heavy gear and we made our way through the mud and muck with just a few lighter items!Josh is attempting to drive the boat back into the crib after accidentally tipping and fallin in, boat and all! He was lifting the boat motor off the back of the boat which was hanging off the end of the crib and down they went.Josh and Don loading the boat--now filled with water onto the crib--its a good thing we had two good strong men with us and the Lord watching out for us all!We caught so many walleyes I had to start kissing the smaller ones goodbye. Josh was the Northern Pike King---we caught as many or more of those as we did walleyes, but only kept a few. We would catch our limit, then go to an island and eat as many as we could then go back and fill our limit again!

Shore LunchJosh getting some water to clean the fish with--the rocks were rather slippery--the first attempt at collecting water landed him in the water! The water on this lake was slightly stained and choppy but still very clear--perfect conditions for wallys!We scrambled up these rocks with our catch and ice chests to get to our shore lunch spot on Bare Island!Don cleaning lunch.Josh and I with a couple of eaters on the island.

Josh about to crash on the island before cleaning some more walleyes.

Crashed!Lunch and a few wallys to take home.

4 Nice walleyes and a gator (Northern Pike).

Here we sit like birds in the wilderness, waiting for our food... These five seagulls followed us around the rest if the day after we shared our fish scraps with them on Bare Island. We saw a bald eagle too but he kept his distance.After two very full days of fishing, camping and portaging the boys were still raring to go for some more walleyes but Eileen and I were worn out (could be cuz we caught the most and biggest fish--especially Eileen) so we stayed behind on Bare Island for a little napsky and beautifully cool breezes in the shade!

Little Falls (On the way to the portages)Josh N Me at the Little Falls

Don N Eileen at the Little Falls

Kakabeka Falls - Niagra of the North
Kakabeka Falls--otherwise known as the Niagra of the North was absolutely awesome--sheer power. it took me six shots to photograph the whole thing. If I ever figure out photoshop maybe I'll try to connect them. You can get some frame of size reference from the semi truck in the background in the shot below.

Daisies seem to be everywhere up there--these were near Kakabeka.