What we did: Three days and two nights on East Arm, Joe Lake in Algonquin. It was a trip planned by a friend to do with kids but when that didn’t work out he asked Alex, Sarah and I to join instead. So it was on a busier lake than we normally book and pretty easy in terms of paddling and portaging. In the end the friend couldn’t come either so it was Alex, Sarah and me.
🛶 On our way out I was amused and happy to see a group of Amish young women setting off in canoe in long dresses and bonnets. A gentleman pushed them off and away they went.
🛶 Late August camping is just perfect. No black flies but the water is still warm.
🛶 The aeropress is worth its weight for excellent coffee while camping.
🛶 Canoe Lake might be too busy for my taste and not as rugged as I might like but I loved seeing so many kids out there with camps and with their families.
🛶 The loons! I even read up on loon gatherings after this trip. Turns out it’s complicated. But I loved all the flying and swimming and the loon calls.
🛶 There’s so much everyday exercise. Yes paddling and portaging but also setting up tents and hanging the food. I discovered you get a lot of steps in the day when your toilet/thunderbox is 200 m back in the woods. There is also just a lot of getting down and back up from the ground.
🛶 On our way out we saw my daughter and occasional blogger Mallory on her way into Joe Lake with her Trails campers on a week long trip.
🛶 Alex taught us some great paddling songs from his days as a camp counselor leading canoe trips.
🛶 The waterproof map costs more but is worth it.
Map propped against my back for better navigating.
🛶 One of the good things about starting a trip on Canoe Lake is that your exit point has ice cream and hot showers. But that means there’s also a gift shop and I bought some fridge magnets, a Christmas tree ornament, and a new hat (featured in the photos below).
Fridge magnets
What we thought after it was all over: When can we go again? Big trips that require lots of planning are wonderful but it’s also fun just to pack a few bags, load the canoe and head into the lakes and the woods with a friend or two. Thanks Alex! You’re a great tripping companion.
I recently went kayak camping with 6 friends at a remote Ontario provincial park called Killarney. Over 6 days and 5 nights we kayaked on a lake to 3 different camp sites. It was a chance for some holiday rest but also some active challenges.
Each site stop meant packing and unpacking my (borrowed) kayak: sleeping gear, food gear, hygiene gear, camp chair, bug repellants, clothes, and drying line. These were stored in dry sacs that kept stuff dry in inclement weather or if the kayak tips. We also agreed to each pack out our own garbage, which had to be stored every night in our kayaks to avoid attracting animals.
Though I was a girl guide and did family trailercamper trips as a kid, I am newer to camping where you haul your own gear, purify your own water, eat primarily rehydrated food, and eliminate in a “thunderbox”. On every trip I learn more through observing others and asking questions to find what arrangements suit me best (eg, tent vs hammock for sleeping, what vegetarian foods I can take, etc.).
I’m on my own to make sure I can carry what I pack, I pick up after myself, and I keep myself clean, dry, sated, and injury-free. Although this seems like regular adult stuff, in nature with no other amenities than what I carry, I must plan ahead and be self-sufficient. As one of my friends said during the trip, “Doing this as a woman, as a group of women, is empowering.” (Another one said camping is having fun while being mildly uncomfortable.)
What is empowering is not just taking care of yourself but also working together as a group. These women harnessed 7 kayaks in a trailer safely for highway driving, navigated to a remote provincial park, kayaked to multiple camp sites, used fishing gear, arranged in pairs for food prep and clean up, found wood, set up big tarps in case of rain, and shared anything that was needed, from extra salt to insect repellant to tampons to skin bandages.
For nearly a week were on our own but also together: travelling, paddling, swimming, fishing, card playing, pleinair watercolor painting, food and drink imbibing, mosquito repelling, storytelling, and looking out for each other.
I am grateful to have learned so much about the tricks and tools of kayak camping from these women. It’s given me a sense of accomplishment and pride in a hobby that’s fun but not always easy or convenient. I’ve chosen from here this quotation, attributed to Madonna (who may or may not also be a kayak camper), to sum up my thoughts:
“As women, we have to start appreciating our own worth and each other’s worth. Seek out strong women to befriend, to align yourself with, to learn from, to collaborate with, to be inspired by, to support, and enlightened by.” – Madonna
What do you do, on your own but also with others, that gives you a sense of personal autonomy as well as community?
7 kayaks hauled by a truck7 women in kayaks5 women sitting in front of a campfire at duskThe view, of an overturned kayak near the water’s edge, from my tent at dawn
I seem to be at the age when friends start making pronouncements related to their age. Like, now I’m sixty I’m not doing that any more! Fill in the blank for “that.”
Some of the things being cut out are beauty regime related and they come with a feeling of PHEW. Like no more shaving one’s legs, or no more lipstick, or no wearing underwire bras. (We all gave up the last one during the pandemic, right?)
Sixty
And okay, in some cases, they sound like rich people things to say. What are some examples? Like, never flying economy on a flight over 3 hours or some such thing. Which is fine, if you’ve got the money and that’s how you want to spend it, you do you. But don’t make it sound like a moral commitment. You’re just wealthy and treating yourself well and that’s fine. It’s not a major life insight to declare that it’s more comfortable having more leg room on a flight.
But some of the proclamations and pronouncements are fitness activity related and they make me just a little uneasy. On the upside, it’s good to recognize the ways our bodies change with age and adjust our expectations accordingly. On the downside, I wonder if we do that too soon and limit our lives unnecessarily.
The first set that I’ve encountered among friends concern camping. In the last year I’ve heard friends say that they’ve decided they’re too old to sleep in a tent so no more tent camping again. But that rules out any back country camping. Others say now they’ve reached sixty, there’ll be no more portages. That seriously limits your canoe routes.
Others say they’ll ride bikes and run or swim but definitely no more races.
Now I get it if you always hated sleeping in a tent, portaging your canoe, or racing your bike. You shouldn’t do things you don’t like at any age. But if you still like it, why stop? Or maybe you’ve changed your mind, and don’t like it any more, but don’t make it about age. You don’t need an excuse to stop doing a thing you no longer like.
From radicallysunny
My gut feeling is that very little of it is really about age. Other friends say we’re not doing some things because we’re old now. But in many cases they’re things they’ve never done and didn’t want to do in the first place.
It’s kind of like knee replacement surgery. Some friends who have had knees replaced attribute not doing certain activities to knee replacement. But they didn’t do these activities before knee replacement. Further, I suspect they never really wanted to do these things.
I worry we shouldn’t stop doing things we love because we think they’re not possible as we age. The truth is we just don’t know what we’ll be capable of.
The piece begins by noting that our understanding of aging might be radically mistaken because so few older adults get any exercise at all.
“Exercise among middle-aged and older adults in the Western world is rare. By most estimates, only about 10 percent of people past the age of 65 work out regularly. So, our expectations about what is normal during aging are based on how growing older affects sedentary people.”
Of course if you don’t like doing a thing– whether it’s wearing lipstick, sleeping in a tent, racing your bike, or whatever– don’t do it. That’s true at 20, 30, 40 etc. But don’t stop doing it just because you don’t like it or don’t like it anymore, and blame it on age.
I’m hoping to expand my range of activities with age. I want to try new things, not shrink my life down.
Sarah and I met an older woman a couple of years ago paddling and back country canoe camping solo. She said her husband used to come with her but with age it became too difficult for him. Now he drives her up there and drops her off. I love that she loves back country camping so much she does it solo now. That’s brave and it’s expanded her options.
I mean, who knows. Maybe she didn’t ever like camping with her husband but it didn’t sound that way.
So it does happen, things can become too difficult with age and injury. I no longer run. But I am hoping to dance, bike, and camp my way into my senior years. It looks as though it might be a struggle to find people to do it with. That’s okay. I like hanging out with younger people. But I am also hoping to lure some friends my own age out onto their bikes for long rides, into the woods and lakes for some camping trips, and out on the dance floor to shake a few moves.
How about you? How are your activities adjusting to aging? How are you feeling about it?
My one bike packing/camping experience was also on a rail trail, organized by Mallory, as part of her Duke of Edinburgh Award program. We packed food, tents, and sleeping bags went cycling in Quebec on the Petit Train de Nord, a 200 km rail trail through ski country. Families used to take the train from Montreal up north to the ski hills but no more. Now people drive and the railway was abandoned. It’s been remade into a terrific cycling/cross country ski trail through some lovely little towns and beautiful countryside.
Sarah and I are going to try it again this summer on the Simcoe Loop Trail. Wish us luck!
I’m telling you how little of this I’ve done so you can wonder why I’m even thinking about riding my bike and camping across Canada when I’m done being dean.
Here’s the logo of the Great Northern Bikepacking Route.
And here’s the map.
How long does it take? That’s the bit that makes me nervous.
Mat and Ali’ write’s site says, “They’ll be leaving mid-May 2024 from Victoria, British Columbia and traversing 10 Canadian provinces and 3 United States, ending in St. John’s, Newfoundland in late fall.”
So maybe, maybe it’s a three or four summer thing, where I do a section of it each summer?
Also, it makes me wish I lived in a smaller country!
I’m an aspirational bike packer. I’m spending too much time watching reels and videos of people bike packing in wild, beautiful places.
I’ve got a bit of an obsession with the Munda Biddi Trail in Western Australia. Now that trail has huts for camping, but being able to tent would give you more flexibility.
I know it seems like it ought to be in my wheelhouse but I’ve actually rarely been bike camping.
I have done trips where we carried all of our stuff and stayed inns and airbnbs. Jeff and I traveled around Manitoulin with the bike trailer staying in inns and motels.
Sarah and I tried to go bike packing but in the middle of our plans the government closed up all the parks due to covid. Here was our plan but here’s what happened.
I think my only actual bike packing trip where we camped and cooked outside and carried all of our stuff was with Mallory. She planned the trip as part of her Duke of Edinburgh award. She’s also been bike packing since then. I looked on in envy.
Ideally, I’d like to be able to fly places with my bike and camping gear and tour around as long as it suits. I’ve got Norway and Japan and Australia in my bike packing sights. But I think we should practice closer to home first. Lol. Get used to carrying gear on our bikes. Try 3-4 days at a time first.
What’s the attraction? Why not just bike from airbnb to airbnb?
I like independence and not having to commit or make definite plans and reservations. Also, lots of the places I want to visit the distances between places to stay are too big. In places like Scotland, also on my travel list, there are lots of hostels and places to stay reasonable distances apart. But that’s not true everywhere.
So the plan is next summer to head out two or three times and see how it goes. I’d like to do long weekend length trips. Are you an Ontario bike packer? Any routes you’d recommend?
“The Friends for Life Bike Rally is the only volunteer-led ride, that brings people together for an inclusive, supportive, and life-changing challenge that inspires much-needed help for people living with HIV/AIDS in Toronto, Kingston and Montréal.”
It’s a 6 day, 600+ km charity bike ride, from Toronto to Montreal.
I won’t be doing it this year. I missing the 25th anniversary year because it’s too close to my second knee replacement and I haven’t been able to train or ride those distances yet.
For many years training for the bike rally, fundraising for the bike rally, and riding the bike rally has shaped my summers. The Friends for Life Bike Rally was the big event that marked, for me, our fittest by fifty challenge that launched the blog.
I’m not going to give the full list of which summers I rode and who I rode with but it feels like the rally is part of the rhythm of my summer. There’s a partial list here, I think.
Last year Sarah and I rode the full thing and our friend Rob came along as a rubber maid rustler, helping to get the containers full of riders’ tents, clothes and sleeping bags off the trucks that accompany us along the route. I did it pretty much right before knee replacement surgery.
It’s a meaningful and importance cause. It’s also a community I care very much about. There are friends I only see every year at bike rally training rides or at the ride itself. Hey friends!
Today, Saturday, is packing day for the rally and my newsfeed is full of friends’ stories and photos of what they’ve forgotten this year and in years past. Tomorrow, Sunday, is departure day and I’ll be following along to see how my rally friends are managing, both in terms of kilometers ridden and dollars raised.
My Facebook newsfeed is also full of memories of past rides.
Sarah and Sam in their bike rally jerseys
Here’s more rally memories:
You might be wondering, “What on earth can I possibly do to make Sam feel better about missing the bike rally?” That’s easy. You can sponsor a rider who isn’t me here.
Or, you can sponsor me in the Pedal for Parkinson’s ride, which I am doing this summer here.
I’m hoping to ride in the Friends for Life Bike Rally next summer, either the three day or the six day ride, though I worry about our changing climate and heat and thunderstorms more than about my fitness.
Over the years camping for me has meant smaller and lighter equipment as I struggle with my knees and struggle with some of the longer portages on back country canoe camping trips. Sarah and I now own a very expensive tent that weighs almost nothing. We have titanium sporks. We’re those kind of campers. Affluent with aging knees.
We also have a more everyday tent that weighs a bit more and takes up a bit more space that we use for cycling trips, like the bike rally. By bike rally standards it’s still pretty small. It’s the tent that the fancy ‘feels like it’s made of gossamer’ tent replaced.
But this summer two things are different.
Obviously my knee recovering from surgery is one. I can get down on that ground and up from the ground but it’s not easy. Likewise, I’m still struggling to sleep. The other is that we want to do some trips with Cheddar. He can’t go on bike trips and canoe camping is completely out, but he can go car camping.
So when my son Gavin bought an enormous tent that sleeps six and you can stand up in it, Sarah and I had an idea–car camping! We brought all the things, including a double inflatable air mattress, so many pillows, real blankets, and a dog bed.
I love the Pinery on Lake Huron. I love the beautiful beaches. I love the sand dunes. And I have so many memories of camping here when the kids were little. In fact, to make the day extra special Mallory came up from London and spent the day with us and Cheddar. We cooked veggie dogs over the fire and played cards. We also did a lot of dog hiking
Read a whole book in the hammock while Sarah took Cheddar on an extra long walk. Heaven.Cheddar got a little wet and sandy!That’s about half of the enormous tent. Interior view. Gavin’s tentCheddar on the drive to the Pinery
Here’s photos from some of our walks.
This is the weekend I stopped using my cane, primarily because it was pointless in the sand. I just left it in the car and when we came back from camping I never went back to using it. Bye for now, cane!
Love the PineryBeach!Beautiful sandy beach.More boardwalkWooden boardwalk to the beach.Mallory in the water but Cheddar isn’t so sure. It was still pretty cold.
I will definitely go car camping with Cheddar again! We decided not to buy a luxurious large tent for now. Instead, our plan is to borrow Gavin’s as needed.
Last spring I booked a number of flights for work and, as a result, started getting targeted ads for all the airline sales. So when a tremendous deal popped up for flights to Charlottetown (PEI) I booked flights for September, put the dates in my calendar and promptly forgot about it.
Then summertime arrived. That’s when I work at Rainbow Camp, an overnight camp for 2SLGBTQ+ youth. This year was our first summer back in person since 2019, as well as our first time running a full summer of camp. This was also my first summer as co-director (shoutout to my amazing co-director Cal!). September was the last thing on my mind.
All of a sudden, my trip was three days away and all I had planned was my flights. No accommodations booked, no routes planned, no rental bicycle booked, no meal plans, no list of things I wanted to do, none of the stuff I would usually prepare in advance. Then all of a sudden it was the day before my flight and still nothing… The night before I left I hastily booked a rental bicycle and booked accommodations, picking places that seemed like a reasonable distance apart. Everything else I could make up as I went along, right?
Five Random Observations Post Trip:
I’d forgotten how much I love the freedom of multiple day solo trips. I could wake up whenever I felt like it, stop for rests whenever I felt like it, spend hours reading, eat when I felt like it and basically do whatever I felt like. (It helped that I “planned” my route conservatively so I was never in a huge rush to get to my destination!)
Rail Trails are not all flat. I knew this in advance but somehow forgot. Cue several hours of slogging along the trail, feeling like you aren’t going anywhere until you see a cyclist going the other way with a grin on their face and you realize you’ve been slowly going uphill for the past several hours.
The roads in PEI are excellent for cycling. I did about ⅔ of my trip on the Confederation Trail and the rest on minor highways. Things I noticed about the roads:
There were large paved shoulders on most roads
Cars were clearly used to seeing cyclists and gave me lots of space
There was signage for cyclists as well as for motorists
I much prefer my own bicycle over my rental bicycle. While I considered bringing my bicycle, I opted to rent a bicycle and panniers for the week instead. While it was a perfectly serviceable bicycle, I prefer mine. (I own a fancy touring bicycle that was a graduation gift the first time I graduated university so to be fair, the bar is high.)
I enjoy having a baseline level of fitness (and possibly youth on my side) that allows me to pick up a rental bicycle, carry all of my stuff (including camping equipment!) and spend five days riding without any training. While I didn’t do any super long distances (my longest day was 70km), I also did absolutely ZERO training and in fact, hadn’t ridden a bicycle at all in the 12 months prior to this trip.
PEI sunsetRail trailNice wide shoulders and quiet roadsMallory selfie on her bikeTent!
The first day was tough. We rode in a heat alert from Toronto to Port Hope. So many traffic lights. So much near heat exhaustion. So few women’s showers. I was never so happy to eat vegetarian lasagna at the day’s end and despite all the things that we were really tough I went to sleep with sore cheeks from smiling. It was so great to see everyone again.
Sarah and Sam tongues out in the heat
Day Two is the longest day. It was also a very hot day. But we made it. Sarah described it as using every trick in the “avoid heat exhaustion” book. We kept drinking. We took all the breaks. We paced ourselves. And we rolled into Adolphustown not feeling too bad. It was also the day we first wore our team jerseys. Thanks Rally’s Angels captains Michael and Vanessa.
Rally’s Angels in the morning sun
Day 3 is red dress day and a slow roll into Kingston. Time for a real bed, dinner out with the team, drag show in the park, and laundry!
Rally’s Angels on red dress day
Day Four involves one of my favorite sections of road, the Thousand Islands Parkway. No cars, just smooth sailing to lunch. We had a great new lunch spot this year at The Barn. Thanks guys for hosting us!
Day Five another fave section, the Long Sault Parkway and this year the nicely paved path through Upper Canada Village. We also opted to wear our team jerseys again since we began the day serving breakfast at 530 am.
Breakfast anyone?
Day Six is the ride into Montreal but first we ride through lots of small towns along the way. This year was the smoothest ride into the city ever. Single file, no passing, no stopping and starting and a police escort once we got downtown. Thanks Rally organizers for that. It’s a moving moment seeing all of the riders on the path into the city and I liked being able to soak it in without worrying about crashing into the bike in front of me.
Rolling into MontrealWe made it!
What to do after the bike rally? Ride Bixis around Montreal of course. We also visited with family. Hi Victoria! And basked in the warm waters at Bota Bota.
I’m also so thankful to all of the friends, family, bloggers, readers, colleagues etc who donated. It’s your gift that makes this ride meaningful.
Riders heading into Montreal, our team at the center. Selfie taken by Rally’s Angels Team Co-Captain Michael
This is just a very short post to let you know we’ve made it to Montreal.
Thanks Robert, Byron, Kira, and Tracy for donating and helping out the rally.
Thanks to my very wonderful team co-captains Vanessa and Michael for all of your work organizing us and keeping us connected during the week. I loved the Rally’s Angels temporary tattoos you gave us for the ride into Montreal.
Today began super early, breakfast at 530 am, to make sure we could all meet up in a Lachine to ride into the city together as a group.
After Sarah and I stopped for ice cream in Lachine, we had a great ride into the city along the Lachine canal. And here we are in Place Émilie-Gamelin where we gathered for speeches and a welcoming celebration.
Sam and Sarah in the middle, with team co-captains Vanessa and Michael on either side. We did it!
Here’s our route:
We’re staying in the Grey Nuns residence at Concordia before taking the train home to Toronto and then on to Guelph. My bike is getting home in one of the bike rally trucks.
There’s a party tonight but we’re too tired. It’s been a big week of riding and camping. My heart is full from the closing ceremony this morning. I’m happy to be in Montreal, happy not to be riding my bike, proud of all that we’ve done, but I’m also very sad to be leaving my bike rally family for another year.
