Happy Canada Day!!

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Hello all. The weekend just past, on Saturday July 1st was Canada's 139th Birthday. So in celebration of this 3 day weekend Chelsea, a bunch of her friends and I went to spend it at a lodge on a lake in the middle of no where. After packing the truck and cars we headed off for the 4 hr drive to 'Long Lake' in Nopiming Provincial Park. The last hour of the drive was along dirt roads and we made the mistake of not closing the external air inlet and so arrived at the lodge completly covered in dust. The cabin was awsome, right on the lake with no view of any other inhabitants, complete with its own dock and sun deck. The fact that there was zero electricity and that we relied on kerosene lamps and candles for light added to the old school feel. So the first night we spent lazing around drinking beers and generally having a relaxing time. The next day we got up to bacon and eggs for breakfast and set off down 'Long Lake' to the waterfall. Whilst travelling down the lake we where lucky enough to spot a few American Bald Eagels flying around the trees. After slowing down evey few minutes to wind through the rocks of the shallow areas we come to 'the rapids'. Its the spot they call the meeting point of two rivers where one flows into the other across some jaggard rocks. We stopped the boats, unlaoded all the gear plus the engine, carried it all the way over the the other river, and set up camp with cameras ready to watch the boys try to shoot down the rapids with the boat. They got half way until the bottomed out and got stuck which was funny.

The waterfall was awsome, big enough yet not so big that you couldnt climb around on it. Was definatly a highlight of my trip, being there in the middle of the Canadian wilderness with 10 Canadians, drinking Canadian beer and getting eaten alive by the bugs. Getting down the rapids with the boat was fun, getting back was a nightmare. We couldnt go back up the river so we had to portage (French for 'treck') the boat across the terrain. Ive never seen a boat so poorly handled. We basically dragged it across the ground, most of it being solid rock, cos it was to akward to carry. Along the way I managed to headbutt the boat and gave myself a nice little cut. My poor head has being getting a beating of late.

By the way Manitoba is the mosquito capital of Canada, not to mention all the bees and horse flies. No kidding when you walk outside the cabin at night time you literally walk into a wall of of mosquitos, ive never seen so many its crazy. The next few days we spent fishing and lounging around doing not much at all which was perfect. So now we are back in Rosser at Chelsea's house relaxing after a weekend of relaxing, its going to be a mission to go back to work. Hope you enjoy the pics. Most of them are from the weekend just gone but there are also some from the previous weekend as well as a couple from the CFL game i told you about.

Be excellent to each other.

Krisitan

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Photos

So what are the rules??
This is the Winnipeg Blue Bombers in action against Toronto. Every time Wpg scored a cannon would fire and a tractor in the shape of a plane would do burnouts in the endzone (we won!!)

Greg and Deanna
These are Chelsea's friends that we went camping with my first weekend here.

Chelsea in our tent
Chelsea's mate let us borrow this tent for the weekend - it's almost big enough to rival the Taj.

Greg and I checking out Deanna
We forgot food but the esky is full of beer!

Hard Yakka
This is the dock where we spent a good part of the day jumping into the water and sunbaking

Life is hard
The view from the sun deck at Kyle's cabin

Bugger
These are the rapids that join the two lakes - the boys got marooned half way down

Expectations
Waiting on my rock for the lads to shoot the rapids

Pudd and the waterfall
I scaled the rocks to get here only to find my leg covered in little leeches

The Group
Kyle, Lindsay, Kelly, Conrad, Holly, Mike, Erin, Jeff, Me, Chelsea

Chelsea and I dancing
In the middle of the lake there was a rock plateau where Chelsea and I had a boogie

The plateau
One of the boats drifted away - with Kelly in it...

Beautiful
I wanted to get a shot of the scenery but Chelsea got in the way

Inukshuk
This is a rock man (inukshuk) that Kyle and Conrad built 3 years ago. It is an ancient symbol that the Inuit in Canada's north use to mark good hunting trails and where people have travelled.

Comments

[Bob]

Good Times
Hi pudd, yep i think you'd be kickin yer-self if you hadn't gone back to visit Chelsea, she looks absolutely gorgeous,and you two look like yer havin a really great time.The photos are fantastic and yes yer right,it's gonna take you for-ever to settle back into work ,i'm afraid that you'll be makin a fair few mistakes fer a while.Tell Chelsea's parents thanks for looking after our boy so well and if Chelsea ever found her way over then we woulld love to reciprocate.I have been enjoying watching Wimbledon pudd with my boy going swimmingly until to-day when he got beaten by Marcos Bagdadis, it's realy frustrating be-cos if Hewitt just played agressively like he does when he has his serve broken he'd be ok but he just has gotten into this habit of just gettin the ball back across the net and waiting for his opponent to make a mistake which might work ok until you get to the big guns and they just go for it , any way coach Payne over and out. Take care Yung man say hello to Chelsea. Luv Dad.