Canoe Trip On The Tobique - Saturday

Howdie! Time to continue on with Saturday's events! Very early that morning, (somewhere around 6:00am)we woke up at Mary's request to see a deer in our campsite. Mary was standing there feeding her some bread. Unfortunately I could barely open my eyes let alone find my camera so I didn't get a picture. I did manage to get some later, since the deer figured out where to come for food and made many more appearances.

Mary, a.k.a "Martha" cooked up a huge breakfast and we all started packing our canoeing gear. Chris went to the gate to arrange for our pick-up (we had previously paid 10 bucks/canoe for them to drop us off about 1/2 hour down the road)..but there was nobody there! We were anxious to leave, and worried about the impending rain later that day. We decided to ask our new buddy Derek if he'd give us a lift..he happily obliged.

So we loaded on our canoes and piled in the back of Derek's truck and we were off. So if any of you have ever seen the movie "Dumb and Dumber" you'd remember the "Mockingbird" song..with all the people in the back of the van? Well, we were in a truck, but we still felt like we were in that movie..what a laugh! We sang that song many times..well, Darcy and I did anyway! About 1/2 hour later we were there!
This picture is a bit crooked, I was trying to turn around without flipping the damn canoe..it was quite an effort! You can see Chris and Mary in the background..
Here's the happy couple..Chris was casting a line. He and Darcy both fished a bit, but there were mostly suckers swimming around so they gave up rather quickly. While we were on the river, I took some video..the quality is not the best and it's pretty loud with the wind blowing..but it works! So, feel free to check them out here, here , and here. And for some video of the ducks we fed you can click here.
Here's the rain on it's way..we worried about it, actually thought about cutting the trip short halfway through..and then said to heck with that! Who cares if we get wet? By this point, the coolers were getting much lighter, so all caution was being thrown to the wind.
We arrived back at the campground around supper time, and we were all in fine form! (As you can imagine!) We decided to eat something, which put everyone in a very blah state, and our paralyzer supply was almost gone. Just when we thought we'd have to crash..in pulls our new buddy Derek! Man, does this guy ever have good timing. He was on his way to the general store for some beer and asked if we needed anything. So we put in our order and in the meantime had another visit from our friendly neighbourhood deer. This time I managed to get a picture!
We also spent a good deal of time setting up tarp town. We knew it was just a matter of time before the rain hit, and we were prepared for it! Mary pulled out the biggest tarp I've ever seen in my life..and we set up a great little shelter. Later on, Derek, Jennifer, Mr. Brown, and another couple (I forget their names), all arrived and we had a fun little party goin' on. Here's a pic of us sittin' around under the tarp..
The best part was the rain didn't last, it only came in spurts. We still had a fire going the whole time (which is the most important part!), and after a couple of hours our company left. Shortly after, Mary and Darcy went beddy-bye..Chris and I decided to venture on down the road to Derek's trailer to join their party. What a time! I won't get into details..but I met a new friend who I like to call "Giggles"..that would be Chris! We didn't get back to our site till around 3:30am, where we found poor Darcy trying to dry out by the fire. The inside of the tent was damp and cold..yuck! Nothing worse than trying to sleep in a wet tent!

Despite being up half the night, we all managed to wake up relatively early to pack up and hit the road. No pictures from Sunday..put it this way, the Plaster Rock was a rough ride home, Thank God for gravol!

Till next time,

Lissy