Ye Olde Batt: I'm Sure Murphy's Law Reigns Supreme

Forget moral law, forget state law, forget law of any kind except Murphy's Law. That fellow Murphy must have had some power..... I mean his law reigns supreme.... at least in my life.... no doubt about it! Yup.... all summer I begged, pleaded, and desired rain like nothing else and I finally got it. Yup... right when I was camping....
The grass was wet.... the fire wood was wet... the sleeping bag was wet, (because stupid here forgot to close the vent in the tent)..... my shoes were wet.... my pants were wet.... the matches were wet.... the containers we carried our food in were wet.... the toilet paper was wet.... the dogs were wet.... and muddy. And... my backside hurt from a severe case of siatica.

Murphy... you got to love him.

I'm home again after three arduous days of camping in the bush.... and I mean bush.

After packing on Tuesday... and Wednesday morning, Teapot, the Daughters and I headed off for a hopeful few days of traveling down river with the intention of camping in different spots each night when we got off the river. It didn't quite happen the way we hoped.

Our first camp site was only 20 minutes down river. we did this purposely because we had never camped with the Daughters in this rough situation before, and we thought that if there were any problems after the first night we could combat them with a quick stop at our house as we passed by on our second day. (Our starting point was upriver from our house.) I had never paddled in the steering position on a river before, so it was with trepidation that I set off with Daughter #2 in my canoe about 50 feet ahead of Teapot and Daughter #1. Teapot and Daughter #1 have way more power than Me and Daughter #2 so it was not long before they had caught up to us and we were able to chat away as we paddled along. There were loons and geese all over the place and we saw an eagle on the shore tearing a fish to bits and eating it.... It was overcast but pleasantly warm and just a very soft breeze.

Soon the island that we were going to camp on the first night (one on which we had camped before) was quickly coming up and I was getting nervous thinking about having to maneuver toward shore. one screw up and we would be finding a different island to camp on. The river was high and so it was flowing fairly quickly. There was too much room for mistakes... Teapot was trying to direct me to paddle into a back eddy however if I missed that I was going to be washed right past the whole island.... so in a panic I quit listening to him and headed for shore straight on.... anywhere.... I didn't care if I hit the rocks head on.... I just went for it.... and guess what.... I hit a back eddy that we hadn't seen just a little ways from where Teapot was directing me and made a perfect.... I mean text book... landing. Daughter #2 and I both had such looks of surprise on our faces that you would have laughed. I think even Teapot was surprised.... of course I acted like I knew it was going to happen like that.....

Night #1
We set up camp and settled down to making a good supper. Along about 10 p.m. it was dark and getting cool and the Daughters were tired and ready for bed so we all decided to head into the tent.... that when we discovered that one of the air mattresses was leaking.... Teapot found the leak and made an effort to fix it with the great Canadian fix-all tool.... Duct Tape... gotta love it...

After a few short hours of sleep... (ha like that really happened) I looked across to Daughter #1 who was wide awake with her iPod on.... By 5 a.m., Teapot had slept but really no one else had.... (does that say something about men?) due to a too thin mattress, an air mattress that wouldn't stay blown up, and a decrepit old lady with a back problem (ah, that would be moi). The day was cool and grey with the threat of rain.... and sure enough we had a few showers.... but none that lasted long... Everyone was wiped and my back.... ( stupid thing) had decided to seise up.... By noon, I could hardly stand up and certainly not straight.... so much for sleeping on an air bed.... aren't they supposed to be the ultimate in outdoor bedroom facilities?!

Teapot returned home, which was directly across the river from where we were camping, (as the crow flys about 2 1/2 km away) to get foamies and an extra tent so that we could fix the sleeping situation. With my back so bad we thought that not going further down river would be smart until the medication that I always carry for just such situations, kicked in.

Night #2
It started to rain along about supper time and rained right through the night which would have been alright except that Jiggs in her excitement to rip around the campsite the first night, had hit one of the guy ropes on the tent and provided some permanent damage to the fly... which for you non campers is the thing that helps to keep out the rain. Also I had forgotten the vent and the rain had been pouring in on the neck of my sleeping bag and pajamas.... that meant that when I went to go to bed.... well I was wet. I didn't bother with pajamas that night opting instead for a pair of sweat pants and a t-shirt. The Daughters by this time were in the tent that Teapot had gotten at the house earlier in the day and we were in the wet tent with a tarp strung over it. This was good! My sleeping bag was not as bad as I expected and proved to only be wet on the outside.... which I covered up with and extra blanket. I slept but not well, (I read a lot and even practiced Takli spinning in bed) still though it was better than the first night...

So where was I.... oh yes... all night long it poured,.... and poured,.... and poured..... when we woke it was still pouring..... but we managed to get breakfast lunch and supper in the pouring down rain.... with another tarp over our heads, that Teapot had to climb several trees to string. Along about 9 p.m. we all decided that with the rain it wasn't worth staying up and so we headed off to bed. That's when it stopped raining. It was quite a bit cooler. Teapot and I had given up our nice air bed to the Daughters so that they were able to sleep better and my back was just about gone altogether (remember, I read a lot and even practiced Takli spinning in bed)..... I had two 2 inch foamies and Teapot was sleeping on the dud air mattress with the 1 inch foamie over that... And he slept!!!! (I'm sure that says something about men....!)

The next day we enjoyed rain showers off and on with a little bit of sun for about an hour around noon. But it wasn't long before we were back to showers. We kept dry as best we could though walking through the knee high wet grass to the bathroom facilities that Teapot had built, was not helping at all. It was a lot cooler... (only 9 degrees) and my back was continuing to give problems.... that medication was just not doing the trick so I doubled it. Nope... that didn't do the trick either. Teapot tried fishing.... no fish biting with all that rain. He set up a scavenger hunt with his GPS for the Daughters and while they were off looking for his items it really poured. Finally we were all feeling pretty low so we went to bed with the hopes that there would be better weather on the next day.

Night #3
I hit the bed in complete exhaustion.... my jammies were dry.... the tent was dry.... the sleeping bag was dry..... from that short burst of sunshine around noon.... so I was a happy camper. I fell asleep right away and only woke in the middle of the night to the cry of coyotes on the next island.... (very near and quite awesome in a shiver-up-your-back kind of way). I prayed that it would be nice in the morning and promptly fell back to sleep. At 6 a.m. I woke to a light shower hitting the tent so I went back to sleep again.... an hour later I woke again and it had stopped raining.

We got up at about 9 a.m. and had breakfast and called Fadder on the cell to see what the forecast was. Rain, rain and more rain. So we figured that we should pack up while the going was good and cut our mini vacation short. It was just as we were packing that canoes when the last rain shower hit. We got drenched. Down the river to the boat launch which was not far away.... and home for showers and warm dry clothes.

Highlights of the trip???? The full moon coming out from behind the clouds on the first night. Playing finger games with a sleepless Daughter #1 in the middle of the night. Eagle on shore with a fish for its supper. a flock of Canada geese coming in for a landing on the river not far from us. A perfect landing in the canoe. paddling through standing waves perfectly for the first time. Making the decision to buy a Voyageur Canoe also known as a Big Canoe. Getting pretty good at Takli night spinning by flash light.Paddling with Daughter #2. And getting home and dry and warm. Typical trip eh?