Day 3 - Sunday July 2 - Gatineau QC

A Cabin on the Lake! WITH FRIENDS!

So after a late night of soggy firework seeking we woke up on July 2 seeking adventure. Little did we know fate had just that in store for us. Gatineau is about 45 mins away from Ottawa, and we didn't have access to our cabin until 3:00 pm, so we had a leisurely morning if munching and gabbing and planning.

The lovely cabin pictured above is at the end of 3 kms of trail (I didn't know that when I booked it) and I had been nervous about it since it was confirmed. Fortunately my wife and friends were positive and confident - I'm not sure they were right. 

The weather in the area had been wet all weekend, and it didn't change this day. As we drove out of civilization and into the pristine 'wilderness' of Gatineau QC the skies let loose large amounts of water, only to dry up as we made our way to the trailhead. Alas, it didn't last.

Ready to go. Ignorant of what was to come.

After listing up, the littlest of us in baby carriers and a wagon, we started walking. The duration was probably a little more than an hour, but it felt like a week. With each step the trail seemed to get longer, the rain fall harder, the bugs bite deeper and our day sink deeper and deeper into despair. Gordon in particular had enough walking in the rain with a little less than a km to go and his tears were on,y matched by the ones secretly escaping my own eyes.

Finally we rounded another corner, and there she was. Brown Lake Cabin, our warm, dry, bug free abide gif the night, or two (more on that later).

The long dining tables and the back if the bunks in the main room. Behind me is a modest kitchen with most of the comforts of home (at least girl campers): a stove, fridge and freezer. Just no water, fir drinking or washing, it ALL has to be brought in.

We saw lots of thus trail.

Typical bunk - where Gord and I slept, after he decided he didn't need to prove himself and sleep alone.

The bed we fashioned for T and H, it was a source of pride for to ill-fated adventure.

The place is a gem, we just hit it at a bad time, and we didn't bring enough water.

The beaver pond we dubbed Bug Lake.

That little red line meant so much more than it shows here.

That's to our wonderful crew we mad the most of things, we changed into dryish clothes, ate a lovely meal of pan fried hot dogs and dried fruit (the BBQ was quite soggy), made s'mores at the wood stove (fire pit was under water and bug infested) and 'went to bed'.

The kids LOVED running around the cabin with flashlights and blankets, as the parents tried their best to calm the tired (I'm not tired) little ones while attempting to relearn simple card games. There was a brief wondrous moment of awe as fireflies began to glow in the grass just outside the window. We brought the kids out for one last bit of wakefulness before hitting the hay. Sadly, that wasn't the last of our adventures for the night.