Training Log Archive: hutspot

Lake # 18 Mary Lake

Headed over to one of my favourite places, Port Sydney and paddled Mary Lake. Compared to some of the smaller lakes I've been paddling, this one was pretty open and choppy as a result. Lots of boat and seadoo traffick so I kept my life jacket on just to be safe.

When I was heading back to the boat launch a young kid was trying to paddle his seadoo back to shore with a Very small paddle. So I towed him back. That was quite a workout! And he barely muttered a thankyou when we reached the docks. (plus he probably could have gotten off the thing and swam behind it to help) Oh well, felt pretty good to power up. :)

Lake # 17 Sparrow lake


Nice early morning paddle with Paula.

Houseys Rapids to Washago and back with Jennifer. Nice and cool this time of the day.

Lake # 16 Silver Lake

I put in at Gull lake, off the Hewit street boat launch and paddled the little river that connects to Silver lake. The lake is fairly small so I paddled the entire shoreline. Hot out there so I was gratefull to find a few meters here and there of shade.

Bracebridge loop with Jennifer. Not very fast but a nice pace in this heat. We ended it with coffee at Oliver's and biked over to the warf for a swim off the cliff.

Awesome ride with Paula near Orillia. We parked at the mall and rode Carlyon to Swift Rapids rode to the end at the locks on the Trent Severn waterway. At the locks we broke out the eggsalad sandwiches and veggies and had a nice break. And then rode back.

About a third of the trip was paved the rest gravelk and atv trail.

Lots of widlife, especially a lot of snakes. We scurried them off the trail so they wouldn't get run over . Although the last snake that I almost braked on top of had a little rattle on his tail which he rattled quite well as he scurried off (!)

Also saw another bear! Well, Paula did. Then she let out an awful wail which scared both me and the bear so I never got to see him. (I did not want to bike back to have a look as it is this area where they are looking for one)


Another fantastic adventurous day shared with a good friend. :)

Old Stone Road trail to Southwood rd, and back, and picked up North Muldrew lake road to the truck. With Lori. The gravel roads were quite dry but the trail itself involved some hike-a-bike sections due to the deep water sections. Lots of mosquitoes!

Would have gone further if we weren't short on time.

Quick hike with Lori at Hardy lake. When we arrived at the parking lot there was a bear hanging around. According to Lori it was probably about 2 years old. Didn't look that scary (not how it looks in my bear-phobia induced nightmares).

C • I'll *bet* that was a quick hike! 4

Lake # 15 : Hardy Lake

It seems fitting that I kayaked Hardy lake with Sandi seeing as we regularly hike this lake.
We decided to bring the kayak cart to transport the kayaks from the parking lot to the lake instead of coming in off the hightway. Not so sure if that was the smartest decision. Definitely not the fastest! First we tried to carry two of them at once, no go. Then we struggled with proper positioning of the cart (it appears I couldn't remember from last year). Through trial and error we managed to log 1.5 hours of hiking fpr all the traveling back and forth on that trail.

The paddle was fantastic. The water was glass for the first hour and it was fun exploring the lake on the other side of the bridge.

Great ride with Cheryl and Debbie around Bracebridge. Lots of rock, mud, sand gravel, grass and a bit of road.

Lake # 14 Three Mile lake ( Houseys Rapids area)

Jennifer and I did another 6:30 am paddle. It really is my favourite time of the day for kayaking. The water is calm and usually lots of wildlife to observe.

It's a pretty lake with no cottages. Unfortunately, locals do lots of camping here with no respect for the enviroment. They leave tarps flapping in the wind; garbage (read: lots of beer cans) lying in the firepits and broken lawn chairs strewn about the campsite. How much effort would it take to throw your garbage in a bag and take it home every time. Too much work for a hangover?!

I really have to make an effort to balance out my activities, meaning do at least a little more biking or strength...(not so much upper body now).

I wanted to get an extra lake in this week because I'm heading to Bradford today for another Cortizone shot that may come with the order to lie low for a week or so. Hopefully not, fingers crossed.

Lake # 12 & 13 Gullwing and Echo

Emily was supposed to join me today but she canceled due to a problem with her back. Luckily Katie was dying to try out her brand new kayak and we headed up to Clear lake road. We didn't really want to put in at the campground so we traveled further on Gullwing road and found a somewhat tricky place to start. ( we should have traveled a little further where we took out which was a much more accessible spot).

Larry had told me that we'd have to follow the shoreline and really scout for the opening to Echo, but that a little river would be there. I guess the Beavers found that little river as well, so we had to get out and portage that cleverly crafted dam.

Both Gullwing and especially Echo are mostly uninhabited lakes. We saw less than 10 cottages where we paddled. Very serene. The suncame out and eventhough it was fairly windy, it turned out to be a great day.

Buckwallow!! Yeah! First time today. I have to say that maybe road biking has made me a bit of a baby. I was a little too careful (read scared) which resulted in a couple of spills. Better stick with it.

Hardy lake with Sandi. Checked out a possibility for a paddle on the way back. Will have to find out the name of the lake.

Lakes # 10 & 11 Bass and Kashe lake.

This morning I set my alarm for 4:45 and was on my way to jennifer's place in Barkway by 5:15, to paddle for 6. Lucky for me she was waiting with a fresh cappucino and we hit the water by 6:30. She has access to Bass lake. It's a small lake and in order for me to count it towards my goal we had to paddle to the far end of it and hug the shore line out to the Kashe river. It was very foggy and a pretty sight near the beaver dam where the Canada geese were hanging out.
We paddled around Kashe and probably only covered about a 1/4 or 1/3 of it. Kashe is a great lake for paddling with its many bays but a little tricky without a map, which I had forgotten. So we played it save and paddled hard back to the river so as not to get back too late seeing as we both had many more things to get done today.
Due to my lack of computer skills, I still seem to have trouble posting pictures here so I will once again post them on facebook.

My first riding lesson. Totally unrelated to training, but it's a new activity I've taken on , so I'm going to track it.

A tough road ride with Jennifer. She's a bit stronger than me so I had to push hard to keep up . Plus it was windy, again.

Biked out Doe lake road and met up with Jennifer near Houseys Rapids road. We continued on Doe lake; to Uffington road; Uffington onto 118 and Gravenhurst Parkway home.

Quite the ride! Av 24.3 Max 47.8

Lake # 9 Long lake

With Emily. We were on our way to paddle the Mushquash river when we passed Long lake and wondered how one gets on that lake. The weather was changing to cloudy and windy, not the hot and sunny that it was at 8:30, so we decided to try Long lake.

We explored the entire shoreline all around because it was not a large lake and battled the waves and whitecaps when we turned north. Good thing we hugged the shore because it was quite iffy there for a while.

Day # 3:

Last day heading out. I was up early at 5:45 while Lori enjoyed her sleep till 7:15. I had a very quiet coffee at the edge of the lake wondering what the weather was going to do and took the time to explore and take pictures of the sunrise.

Breakfast was pancakes with freeze dried strawberries and blueberries. Yummy! Although the blueberries would have benefitted from a longer soaking.

Packed up by ten and hiked about an hour before we heard the rumblings of thunder. It rained off and on for the rest of the hike but never too bad under the canopy of trees. We dropped our packs at one junction and hiked out to a breathtaking view of Starling lake and Lake of Two Rivers.

Another great hiking trip with my favourite siter-in-law Lori.

{if only we didn't have to register as Lori and Monique Butterfield, like we are a couple :) }

C • Or Sisters :-) 1