Weekend Adventure

After a beautiful drive up to Verner, I arrived just in time for a thunderstorm. We decided to go pickup the loaner bike and go for a run…rain or no rain. We drove up to River Valley and unloaded our bikes at the edge of the Temagami. With 2 days of rain, the trail was a MESS! That is a good thing by the way. There was mud, valleys filled with water, hidden rocks and obstructions. We drove for about 2 hours through some really tough stuff. It was a hoot. I had to be winched out of the mud hole more than once. At one point my bikes exhaust was under water and when I stepped into the hole, I sank to my waste!
The winch wouldn’t make it to the closest tree so my buddy Mike wheeled his bike over and we double winched to get my sorry butt outta the hole. What a laugh and an awesome way to begin the trip. We were soaken wet and muddy from head to toe.

The following day we drove our bikes up the 805 and packed for an over night. We were heading to Lower Goose Falls, but when we arrived there was someone in “our” spot…DOH. We decided to go and find ourselves a different spot. We decided on the confluence of the Obabika and Sturgeon Rivers. We were able to bike almost to the spot.
We pitched our tent and made a small camp. Then we put our lawn chairs, cooler, and food pack and we hiked the last km. to the confluence. There was a really nice little beach there. We set up, built a beautiful fire right there at the rivers edge. It was picture perfect. We had potatoes, onions, sausage and chicken kabobs along with nice ice cold beer. After an evening of revelry, we stumbled our way back to camp. I had lost my shoes in the river while executing a dare. Mike dared me to walk the rapids to the other side and so by 2am I gave into the dare. I made it except the rapids sucked the shoe right off of my foot!...doh.

We had an awesome sleep and then went down to the river for a shore lunch. We caught a few Smallmouth Bass and cooked them with our morning bacon. Just as we were ready to leave, 7 canoes full of 14-16 year old girls and some camp counselors arrived. They were quite surprised to see us. They were on day 11 of a 14 day trip. They had to pull all their stuff out of the Sturgeon and portage to above the Obabika falls. Looked like a couple of km’s. These girls were troopers and made short work of that daunting task. It makes me proud and happy to know that these tough Canadian girls had the strength, fortitude and desire to take such a grueling trip. They were covered in bug bites and looked like they had not washed in 11 days. Their canoes were aluminum 18 footers and must have weighed 80 pounds. This one little girl picked it up and threw it on here back. Mike and I couldn’t believe our eyes! Hats off to our Canadian Chicks!

I had promised my wife to return so I could be home on Monday with her. We drove to the closest cell coverage back in town with the intent to call and apologize to my wife. I wanted one more day! My cell beeped and it was my excited wife. “so when are you coming home? Hopefully soon. I long to see you”….doh. So much for another day. I packed my stuff and split and got home 1AM to a wonderfully happy wife.

I doesn’t get much better than that.