2017: Post 11 – My second camping trip

A couple year's ago a few of us paddled the lower Gander River... pick here for that blog entry.  After that trip some of us decided we would do the Northwest Gander River (often called the Upper Gander) in the future...  soooo....

On June 9 five of us drove out to the Bay d'Espoir Highway for a put-in on the Northwest Gander River.  Clyde, Cathy, and I stayed with the kayaks and gear while Hazen and Gary did the car shuttle to leave a vehicle at the take-out.  In hind-sight we should have taken a third car and just dropped it off on the way, saving us the car Shuttle on Friday... No matter though, I am sure by now those of us who stayed with the gear and those who drove have forgotten about the length of time it took...

While waiting for the guys to return we packed all the kayaks so the boys would not have to deal with it when they returned.

Clyde

Cathy taking it easy

It was right around 5:30 pm when we got on the water....

Clyde sitting in a little eddy, waiting for the guys to catch up

We paddled for a couple hours and found a great campsite.

Cathy loves camping....

By the time we had set up camp and relaxed a little, darkness was on us and supper was made with headlamps strapped on... 

It began raining after our camp was set up and we didn't bother with a campfire.  We had a long day since leaving town early in the morning and we didn't stay up late.

The next morning we took our time with breakfast and breaking camp.  It was after 9 am when we took to the water.

Gary

I was having a rough day and so I didn't take many pics during the day's paddle.. but here's a little video clip of Clyde and Hazen...

We found a camp site about 5:30 pm and settled in to camp life - get into dry clothes, set up tents, have supper, collect firewood... 

Hazen brought some Jiffy-pop but it didn't go so well... looking at the charred remains of what was to be a snack around the campfire I was really missing Neville and Shane on this trip.  If you don't know the reason for missing these guys read this blog entry - pick here.

I don't remember what time we went to sleep but it wasn't very late and so we were up early.

 I don't think it was much past 7 am when we got on the water.  A short two hour-ish paddle put us at the take-out at Gander Lake.

Clyde, Hazen, and I drove back to get Gary's car, leaving Cathy and Gary to look after the gear and do a little paddling in the area.  By the time we got back, dealt with a little mishap, and got on the road it was time to get an early supper at the closest Irving where we reminisced about the fun we had over the weekend...  

It was fun.  We had some laughs and have a few stories to tell around future campfires... but the stories and laughter will really only mean something to those of us who did the trip, those who didn't come along will just have to pretend they didn't miss another good trip...