Should I or shouldn’t I?  Whether you do it or not, a choice has been made.  There’s a big difference in settling for something and striving for it!

Yesterday, the plan was to get up to Huntsville to meet up with the folks from Wilderness Canoe.  Talk about a choice!  Their choice was to fly over from Scotland and do a 16 day canoe circuit through Algonquin Park.  The seven of them have considerable skills and with their outfitter of choice, this will literally, be a paddle in the Park, however, this trip is the stuff that creates lifetime memories.

I had packed up some essentials and my gear to fit a flexible day as I really, had no idea how this would play out.  Matthew and I had prearranged a meeting spot and time but with never having met, I saw in my mind the sidewalk greeting, “Hi, are you…., no..Hi are you…..?”.  Well I’m pleased to say that it worked out much smoother than that and after introducing ourselves we were off to the  Schat Bakery and Cafe for a coffee and a baked goodie.  After shooting the breeze for a while I was able to give Matt a lift back to their Oxtongue River base and met with five of the six others on this expedition.  Smiles were every where and it was obvious these lads were going to have fun.

Oh yes, we were talking about choices.  Anybody that runs the 400 knows that a Saturday of a long weekend, Barrie, is not the place to be.  Anybody that knows me well, knows that Dave, and early Saturday morning, are not normally found in the same sentence.  Well, I broke the habit and the tires were turning shortly after 6:30.  The new trailer and a new tie-down set up, along with many years of highway driving made me take a few chances to stop and check that all was good with the trailer and canoe and with traffic very light I soon found myself at Tim’s in Orillia.  Coffee and doughnuts are an integral part of any road trip,……yes?

After wiping the icing sugar off my face, I jumped back in and we were off.  It seemed like seconds and a favourite sign of mine,  “……..Canoes-6Kms.” came into view and I made an easy choice to pull in.  Swift Canoe and Kayak was having an end of season sale and although they weren’t even open the lot was humming with people.  I was admiring some of the Badger paddles on the rack and made another choice, but that’s a story for another day.

Well, Matt and his charges will be on the water headed into the Algonquin interior, Carmen and the folks at Swift will be busy helping another customer, and the merchants of Huntsville will be excelling at customer service.  Make certain you see the storefront sign from Soapstones Soap & Skin Care, on Main Street.  All in all, it was a fantastic day and along the way home I decided to hook onto Hwy 35 south and head down through Dorset and back into Bracebridge on 117.

Matt, I followed your recommendation and got the hull wet on our Swift Algonquin.  Not a long one but on the water just the same.

Now about that paddle…….some choices are going to have to be made!

@wild_canoe @Swift_Canoe @Algonquin_PP @algonquinoutfit @BadgerPaddles #wearapfd #wegetoutside #canoe #tripping