Alternative Title - The retirement of Golden Boy and the birth of Golden Girl.Day #1 - June 26
The much anticipated first canoe trip of the season! In keeping with tradition I had planned to do the Kingscote Lake trip but, in a break with tradition, I was making the journey with Megan and Pat instead of doing a solo trip. To further break with tradition, we were also going to do the trip as a loop - starting off in the park but arriving back near our starting position at the lodge where we first arrived.
Since I had the day off, I arrived early on the Friday and paddled out to the site to set my gear up in anticipation of Pat & Megan's late arrival. This was my first time solo paddling
Golden Boy. As with
Old Green, to solo paddle I had turned the canoe around and was sitting in the front to better distribute the weight. The problem I encountered was that the flat bottom of the canoe made it difficult for me to get into the canoe. It was extremely unstable compared to
Old Green. Maybe it was this lack of instability, or perhaps it was because this was the first trip of the year, or maybe I was just not comfortable with Golden Boy - but after erecting my tent on site and upon leaving to meet up with Pat & Megan - I managed to tip my canoe all by myself. A first! To say the least, I was a tad annoyed with Golden Boy -
Old Green never would have let that happen.
Pat & Megan arrived on-site at about 5:30 and after shuffling cars around, we set off, in a light rain, for the 3 km paddle to the site. After setting up their tent we enjoyed a celebratory drink of whiskey with Tang and ice! Yep - I decided that if Golden Boy was going to pull a first and dump me in the lake, that I was going to break with tradition and bring a bag of ice for the first night. Later that night, again breaking with tradition, we dined on Pizza. Most delicious.
Day #2 - June 27
Up late the next day, we were off for Byers Lake at the crack of noon. Two portages totalling 2 km. The mosquitoes and deer flies were brutal as they awaited us at the end of each portage, eager to fill their bellies with our blood. The pace set by Megan & Pat just about killed me and in the end I had to give in to my aged body and slow down. The result being that Megan carried Golden Boy for most of the second portage. I hate getting old! I actually don't know how I did this by myself with
73 lb. Old Green.
We arrived on Byers Lake to find that my favourite spot, the one with the sandy beach, was occupied by two idiot couples - one with children and the other with a red canoe - seriously - who buys or rents a RED canoe!
We had no choice but to select the site further down the lake which turned out to be an acceptable alternative. Here we made camp and after a few sporting events such as Pat's 'kick the banana' and Megan's 'I peed on my shoe', we got down to the serious business of making THE STEW for dinner. This was followed by another glorious night of sitting by the fire drinking whiskey and Tang - only we had run out of Tang so it was orange Kool-Aid.
Day #3 - June 28
We arose early to a perfect warm cloudless day. We had 5 portages to do in order to make it back to the lodge so we got started at a reasonable time of 10 am - after pancakes of course.
The day was pretty uneventful, filled with numerous beaver damn pull-overs and even more numerous bugs. We stopped briefly for lunch at High Falls and as we completed the last portage the rain began to fall for the one hour river paddle back to the lodge. All in all a very enjoyable trip - did I mention that Pat managed to dump himself in the lake at one of the portages. I think
Old Green was just being pissy!
A note here about Golden Boy. At some point during the second day I realized I was having great difficulty with getting in and manoeuvring Golden Boy. He just didn't have the stability of
Old Green. The only thing I could think of was to reverse the direction of paddle and sit in the canoe as it was designed. Although the front end was lifted more and would be unwieldy in a strong wind, the new paddle direction worked very well - improving both the stability and manoeuvrability. Given that, the canoe had to be renamed ...
Golden Girl !
After my last canoe trip, in which I performed poorly, I decided that it was time I went out for my first solo trip - to reaffirm myself as Paddlin'Bob. On Sunday I set off for Ralph Brice Lake - shown as Butt Lake on this old copy of the Algonquin Park map.
The site I choose offered me both a south view of the moon rising as well as a north-west view of the sun setting. The site was also home to a family of loons who kept me busy with the camera.
As the sun set, I spent the evening by the fire watching the almost full moon. It was wonderful!
Though it rained all day, it did clear in time for me to see both a glorious purple coloured sunset and an almost full moon rise. All in all a perfect day. 
I awoke the final morning with overcast skies and headed home early before the next wave of rain. A perfect solo trip. My thanks go to Golden Girl who performed wonderfully!
