It is a gorgeous morning on Ahmic Lake.
I woke up in my boathouse retreat about 10 minutes ago after nearly 8 hours of sleep and am listening to a few birds as I type this. Other than those avian noisemakers, it is virtually silent. The wind hasn’t started up yet this morning, so I don’t even hear any waves slapping against the dock or pushing the boats around downstairs. This won’t last long, I’m sure – there’s certain to be a boat or two cruising by before I’m long into this narrative. I can live with that.
 |
| Life on the Magnetawan River |
I arrived at Camp Ulvik at about 8:00 Saturday night after a really nice drive from Cornwall, VT. The trip began somewhat inauspiciously when I discovered, in Shoreham, that the updates that I’d applied to my GPS unit last week had completely wiped out all Canadian data and I was unable to get directions to Magnetawan. This isn’t nearly as bad as it sounds – I was making the trip before GPS existed, after all – but if the weather hadn’t been perfect all day on Saturday then I might have been a bit stressed. As it happened, however, I managed to find my way to Cornwall, Ontario; and then I used a method that I’d employed once in the 1990s to get here: I headed west until I saw signs to towns or landmarks that jogged my memory. Kingston, Ottawa, Algonquin, Huntsville, etc.
I was met at the camp by Cy, “T”, Don & Julie Peddy, and the Peddy’s new puppy, Nellie. Dinner was barbecued ribs, cole slaw and mashed potatoes, and all of us hit the sack fairly early.
Yesterday morning was devoted mainly to getting the camp connected to the internet. Whoever closed things up last September hadn’t stored the DSL modem and routers in their normal spot in the basement; and I tried unsuccessfully to connect with an older modem for about an hour before, mainly out of frustration, I had an inspiration and checked an upstairs closet in the farmhouse and found the missing equipment. Once that was recovered, it was a short business to get things up and running.
 |
| One of the floats in the Magnetawan Canada Day Parade |
After having a crumpet for breakfast, I joined the rest of the gang for a trip into town to catch Magnetawan’s Canada Day Parade. It was, by necessity in a town of 300, rather short; but it had a patriotic charm that reminded me of July 4th celebrations from my days in Shoreham in the 1970’s. Bunting, flags, old cars, kids on bicycles, dogs decked out in flags…all in all, a very pleasant diversion.
After the parade, there was a cake cutting (happy 145th birthday, Canada!) it the town center/library/hockey rink, and 60 or 70 people broke into “Oh, Canada” seemingly spontaneously. It sounded great.
 |
| As do I. |
I walked the two and a half miles back to the camp and the remainder of the day was a typical Ahmic afternoon. Had a nap, followed by a great dinner (“T” grilled some chicken breasts and Julie pitched in with a salad), and then the 5 of us played Oh Hell until 11:00 or so.
Managed to get Amy on a video call at about 11:30 – sadly, she will not be able to visit next week (a tenuous plan that had been formed proved to be too impractical), but we had a nice talk before I toddled off to take a few shots of the moon and hit the sack.
The high temperature yesterday, by the way, was probably about 85. I’m told that it hit 106 in Atlanta and 111 in other parts of Georgia. I’m quite happy to be where I am, deer flies and all.
Laptop battery running low, and I’m short on time. Later, all.
TWD