Canoe Camping

On Labor Day weekend, Caleb and I embarked on our first solo canoe camping adventure.  We were both introduced to canoe camping last summer when a professor from Corban and his wife took us and another engaged couple from Corban on a premarital canoe trip.  We learned from them how to waterproof the gear, how to tie down the gear and balance the canoe, and how to work together to maneuver the canoe wherever we want to go (theoretically).

We borrowed a canoe from a friend and set out late morning that Friday on Horseshoe Lake.

The lake is true to its namesake in that it does snake around into a horseshoe shape in such a way that you can only see a small part of the lake from any given spot.  In that way, it has definite river-like qualities, although there was never much of a current.  We took our time and paddled to an open portion of the lake where we floated and ate our lunch.  Then we continued on until we found our campsite.

The bank was pretty steep, but there was a spot mostly level for our tent, and a fire pit a previous camper had built out of rocks.  

After we set up camp, we took a hike to the nearby "Devil's Well", a naturally formed rock pit, filled with water.  There was no guardrail surrounding the steep drop into the well, so it made us a little nervous, especially after the wind picked up my empty camera case, which I had set to the side while I was taking pictures, and blew it irretrievably right down into the well!  

 

We haven't checked to verify the truth to this, but we heard that the water depth in the well was tested and so far, the bottom has not been found.  Also, dye was put in the water to see if it would surface anywhere, and the dyed water was found in five area lakes, some quite a distance away.  

Next, we paddled over to Exley Falls which appear much bigger in person than in the picture!  We hiked up one side of the falls and down the other after crossing the stream at the top that feeds the waterfall.
This was the view from the top of the falls:

We then canoed down the farthest tip of the lake, where it feeds into a stream, into another lake, I think.  

On our way back to our campsite, we enjoyed watching many turtles sunbathing on logs.  As we would approach, they would one by one slide off the log into the water.

We spent the evening cooking dinner on our new Coleman camp stove, reading books, and enjoying conversation around the camp fire.    

Caleb is an excellent camping organizer and canoe packer I discovered.  How fortunate!  We are grateful for the wedding gifts that provided the equipment for us to go camping, because it allows for a very inexpensive, local getaway for us!  

Doesn't this picture just make you want to go camping?  It does for me!  We're headed out this weekend for the last campout of the season - via car instead of canoe this time. 

 God provided a car for us with four wheel drive to get ready for the rough winter ahead - we found it on Craigslist and bought it on Friday.  Thanks for praying!

Workout and Shopping

As hinted at in an earlier post, we ride our bikes around town quite frequently.  Caleb's college car died and was donated to UGM last year, so when we got married, "my car" became "our car".

Unfortunately, it had a rather short life as "our car".  Maybe it was somehow payback from the car for having to drag a pair of boots and a pair of shoes from the wedding in Renton all the way to Seattle and the Olympic Peninsula, across two ferries, onto foreign soil (Canada), back again on another ferry, back to Renton, then on to Spokane (the boots were last seen still attached to the car, in a rather shredded state, at the Costco gas pump in Spokane).

But regardless, on July 6th our car was totaled in a small accident with Caleb driving responsibly at 25mph through our little town.  Another driver just didn't see him and turned left from a cross-street directly in front of Caleb, causing him to hit her car.  No one was injured, thankfully, and Caleb was even able to share with the other driver about the gospel.  The driver's insurance company was really wonderful to work with, and it ended up being a huge blessing because we received a check from them for double what my parents and I had paid for it when I bought it used a couple of years ago.  

Following the accident, we had quite the schedule of events and trips, so we delayed looking for a car until we were back in town the second week of August.  And we are still looking....and biking!  We have had quite the journey so far of learning how to "read" a car and its owner, searching Craigslist daily, borrowing cars to look for cars, remaining firm despite pushy salesmen, doing our blue book and consumer report research, and calling the police to report sellers who almost scammed us.  Thanks to my Dad for giving us a list of warning signs to look for in a Craigslist car, and thanks to my in-laws for letting us borrow their cars so frequently!  The car God wants us to have will show up in His timing.  We would appreciate your prayers, as all of the sudden, winter seems not so far away!

We have also gotten to sharpen our backpack packing skills as well as balancing skills - when we go grocery shopping.  Today, we biked home from the grocery store with 36 pounds of food on our persons (including 4 jars of tomato sauce, a dozen eggs, and five whole cantaloupe among other things)!

We celebrated our achievement by testing out the Fry Daddy someone gave us as a wedding present.  We had never used one before, but we discovered it is way too easy to make homemade, deep-fried french fries.