Gracefully Camping as "People of Advancing Age"

We just wrapped up our summer road-trip through Northern Saskatchewan, and while it didn't go exactly according to plan, we continue to take lessons from life that I hope will assist us in this whole concept of "graceful aging." Instead of forcing ourselves to suffer through the rain and mosquitoes, Wendy and I leaned into the comfort of a cabin, cut our losses when the weather turned, and still managed to find plenty of rugged wilderness magic along the way.

Sandy Lake: Sunset

The Very Heart of Luxury: Screened Windows and Cinnamon Buns

Our trip started with a rainy drive up to Emma Lake, complete with a stop for cinnamon buns in Hague. When we hit Boundary Bog, the mosquitoes were thicker than I’ve ever seen them. I spent most of the hike wrangling my camera in a rain coat and my body covered with lifesaving mesh—much to Wendy’s entertainment.

Master of the 4 Elements: Earth, Air, Water, Mosquitoes

Pitcher Plants in Bloom

Curious Elk

Fox: Wet but undeterred

A younger Wendy would have insisted on setting up the tent and lighting a fire with a single match. Wisdom may come slowly, but it does come. We investigated the bug situation at Namekus and Sandy lakes, looked at each other, and promptly decided to stay in Anna and Ian's cabin. We spent the evening hunting the hoards of mosquitoes that snuck inside, reading Dungeon Crawler Carl, and listening to the persistent buzz of our enemies through well-screened windows.

Coyote Pair

Spruce River Bridge: Sunset

Use of Power

Fun Clouds - Burnt Forest

Heading north to Lac La Ronge Provincial Park, we were shocked by the haunting beauty of the burned forests along the highway and later the rough, unpaved road. We set up camp at the Churchill River Campground at Otter Rapids. 

The campground has undergone some destructive human-caused event which ravaged half of the campsites. A bunch of the natural rock has been blasted to rubble along one side of the road and trees and brush have been cleared.

We stayed on the other side of the road from this and our site was lovely, but Wendy was again quite frustrated and confused why the park (or the province) would have done this. I suppose it is an "infrastructure thing," but it sure looks depressing at the moment.

Site C-10

After setting up the tent, we went to investigate the water. The river is incredible and very fast. The water was so high and rough that Wendy’s beloved "Suntan Rock" was entirely submerged in cold, rushing water. We stood there, senses filled with the wild crashing noise, watching fish jump up the rapids. 

Cold, Wet and undeterred

Later, we spent three hours canoeing on Devil Lake, eventually finding a quiet patch of smooth Precambrian stone to sun ourselves while Ring-Billed Gulls and Common Terns bickered over floating debris.

Devil Lake

Living and Burned

"The Beast"

I had Wendy write this part as my storyteller's inclination may have been getting the better of me. Even though she is a James, I thought she might come up with the more reasonable version of events.

There is a short but vigorous hike between Otter Rapids and Devil Lake.  Mike thought it would be a good evening adventure, and I was game. I think if we’d known it was two hours each way, we would not have headed out, as it is not well groomed. 

We made it about 10 minutes along before I saw something out of the corner of my eye puffing up.  Remembering recent stories at work about exactly how painful a porcupine quill is to remove, I was shouting “run” at Mike before I could even see what it really was.  

Normally, Mike is a much more effective runner from danger than I am, as he has a natural flight response and I have a natural fight one. I also think Mike is a faster runner than I am, especially in my mid-50s, but this turns out not to be true when he runs into a tree with his head and shoulder after a 30 second  downhill sprint, then bounces off into me, causing me to stumble and turn my ankle.  Anwyn would have been proud of my fortitude in continued forward progress, but Mike was done.

Mike was pretty shaken post tree-assault and my shouting, and asked me about a bear. I said no, you shouldn’t run from a black bear, which is why we have not in the past when we encountered them.  This is when Mike revealed my porcupine was actually a grouse (he had seen it more fully) and expressed some passing annoyance with me regarding the pell-mell sprint. I maintain the reasonableness of my flight. The grouses natural puffiness simply did its evolutionary job as I shoved Mike back down the trail.

We continued on the hike for a bit more in silence, both pretty shaken, then sat on bank of the lake for a while to regroup and ponder our mortality. We spent additional time discussing the scat we had seen that I thought was bear and Mike did not, because it had grass. Then we talked about the problem bear in the area.

Hold 'em? Or...

We were both feeling a little too much adrenaline in our bodies and just a little foolish, giddy, and scared after our collision with nature. We rightly decided to curtail the 2hr each way hike (which would have left us in total darkness) and finished the much shorter portage part of the hike, stopping to watch as the sun sank low while ducks dipped and flirted with the beginning of the rapids. Wendy insisted that it would never happen, but we actually saw one brave/crazy soul ride right down and out of sight!

The next morning, after a quick breakfast, we headed back to Devil Lake. There was a forecast for rain later in the afternoon (and then for the next few days) so we made sure to get one more canoe session in. After all the paddling we had done for the last couple of days, we were both quite sore. Wendy’s wrists were a real concern and so we took care to pace ourselves.

Merganser Females

We spent quite a bit of time investigating Murray Rapids, and a couple of little islands flanking them where people have set up backwoods campsites.

Rapids and Rosebush

Also enjoyed a long time watching 3 mature bald eagles as they screeched at one another from their perches and took turns cruising the lake for fish.

Bald Eagle

Another favourite of mine was watching the Grackles walk the rocky shoreline and plunging their bodies into the water to nab dragonfly larvae.

You Grackle!

As dark clouds rolled in, we made the executive decision to pack up and head home early. With my wildlife related injuries, Wendy’s wrists acting up, and two days of rain in the forecast, we realized we had already squeezed the absolute best out of the adventure. 

Strange as it is to be typing this, I actually feel that there was simply no need to force it. It was enough. Here’s to doing things a little smarter, listening to our bodies, and remembering to enjoy our own sense of purpose and accomplishment.