Let's Canoe in Woodland Caribou
by Sawvivor
We all met up at Greg Negards place and immediately start going through our gear. Dad and Negard take one look at our packs and laugh about how much extra gear we are packing. There is one rule my Dad likes to follow when packing clothes for a canoe trip and it goes like this. “NO COTTON!” My Dad yells as we are rifling through our Duluth packs. Dad likes to travel light and not wear clothing that will be hard to dry and bulky when packed.
So, we got our gear packs down to hardly anything. Three clothing bags, one tent, sleeping bags and three pairs of camouflaged crocks when into a #4 Duluth Pack. Then we have the Cooks food pack color coded with breakfast, lunch and dinner. And for the Third and final pack we have a Duluth food pack that we keep all the camping and cooking gear, axe, tackle box, and the sawvivor camping saw just to name a few. The goal is to get three bags and three canoeists into one canoe for this trip. Dad had me go get Negards canoe out of the garage so we could see how it would all line up, a mock canoe set up if you will. Yep, they all fit. I will be in the bow of the canoe with 2 packs behind me, then Jackson in the middle hull, followed by 1 more pack with Dad sitting in the stern. The footprint of our mock canoe was a success!
We are packed and ready to take off for Red Lake, Ontario, Canada in the morning. An 8-hour car ride was all that was between us and getting out on the water. Greg Negard and Dad cooked brats and beans for dinner so that left Jackson and I on dish duty that evening. It was something Jackson and I had better get used to doing for the next week. Being so anxious for ice cream that night we forgot to wash the big pots and pans. Dad and Greg would let us know about them in the morning. We all had heaping bowls of Caribou Tracks ice cream and called it a day. Tomorrow morning, we would get up early and drive to Red Lake, Ontario, Canada.