This is a long entry so I am going to post it over two days. Here is the second half - from landfall on Saturday to landfall on Sunday

When we got ashore we quickly got to the basics of setting up camp. Tents were erected, and firewood was gathered. Luckily the island was not a small one so there was no shortage of firewood to gather. The only problem was that the vast majority of wood was very wet. The fire spent a lot of time on 'life support' - being fed loads of kindling so that the larger logs would eventually light. After a while the fire started to burn properly and I explored the island a bit.

The island is around 100 meters across with two campsites on the southern side. The bush on the south side of the island was sparse but the north side was forested too thick to walk through. I went a bit north but elected to turn back because the effort of pushing through all the trees and branches simply wasn't worth it.

On the way back to the campsite I discovered the second outhouse, one of the green throne variety. They are amazing toilets for the fact that they afford little to no privacy and have arm rests. I honestly don't know why they gave a thunderbox arm rests, but it seems like the height of luxury.

When I returned to camp preparations for supper were in full swing. Potatoes were roasting over the fire, and hot rod ends and gummy bears were being passed around as an appetizer. I really need to make a cookbook full of recipes that use hot rod ends. Spiced meat goes well in many dishes; omelets, soup, meat pies, you name it.

After waiting what seemed like forever, the potatoes were cooked enough to allow us to start cooking the steaks and beans. The steaks were cut so large they appeared to be small roasts. After cooking the potatoes, beans, mushrooms, and steak over the fire all was left to do was open the box of wine and start eating. The wine gave me no end of amusement. The box proclaimed that it was voted the best cask wine, which seems rather unlikely given its current packaging.

Keeping with the focus of the trip, the food was amazing. The potatoes were a bit... blackened, but I easily scooped out the nicely cooked innards. The steak was amazing especially after a day of anticipating it, and the beans were beans. Beans, like summer sausage, are one of the foods you simply must eat once every canoe trip. Nothing wrong with beans.

After supper we sat around a bit and talked of how strange it was to be able to sit around a fire after dark and not be carried away by mosquitoes. The cold weather does have its advantages. Everyone hit the sack early knowing that a long paddle home awaited them the next morning.

I woke up many times during the night, but I was able to roll over and go back to sleep. I woke up in the morning to an empty tent and the sound of rain gently falling on it. I cursed the weather for a moment and remembered that I needed to have a word with Environment Canada about their meteorological data and their accuracy. Luckily the rain stopped several minutes later and in total it only drizzled for ten minutes.

Breakfast was pancakes, sausage, and fruit juice. I am amazed by the amount of beverages we brought with us for the weekend. They tasted great but I would hate to carry all that liquid weight over portages. Luckily the bulk of the food rode in other canoes. After an amazing breakfast we took down the tents and cleaned the campsite while the sun rose and temperatures climbed.<p>

Saturday was cold and windless, and Sunday was shaping up to be quite the opposite. As we loaded all of our stuff into the canoes and headed out, the wind picked up and blew up across the lake in good time. This was pleasant, but the knowledge that we would have to fight the strong wind later spoiled any positive effects it gave.

When we got to the river, the wind blew us all over the place, coming from a different direction after every turn. The portages had dried out a little bit over the night, but for the most part we came out just as muddy as we did on Saturday. The time spent going down the river flew by. The trip home always seems to go faster than the trip to camp. Mikael and I were the first to finish each portage so we spent lots of time simply floating downstream while waiting for everyone to catch up. Lunch was the same as the day before, eaten at the beginning of the second portage.

Tulabi lake was the last stretch of water to cross to make it to the van, but there was something rather annoying on the lake. Whitecaps, and lots of them. The lake reminded me vaguely of the North Atlantic, cold and turbulent, only moved to a unexpected location. We paddled straight into the wind and battled the waves for what seemed like forever until we reached the opposite shore. We were wet, tired, and muddy, but well fed and happy to be at the end of a great trip.

All the pictures from the trip can be found here.