Killarney - July 29th to August 3rd 1999
    by Mike Dale

"The trip of a thousand portages begins with a single wimper."

Our group assembled, bleary eyed from a late night and early morning, at Johnny Lake. Some I knew casually, others were a first introduction. The night before had been torrential downpour but we were assembling in brilliant sunshine. Due to late cancellation of one member due to sickness, we found ourselves with an odd number and one canoe short. As fate would have it, I had loaned my cedar canoe to a friend for the month and it was only 15 minutes away. Celine and I picked it up and saw a magnificent bull moose on the way back to Johnny Lake. The universe had determined that there were to be obstacles, but no barriers, on this trip.

We headed off on our adventure. I am glad that I did not really dwell on the number of portages and the length of these, during the planning phase. The reality of walking it was far less tortuous than what the mind can conjure up. Andrew, a new friend, was completely at home in the bush and provided some tips on portaging that I had not seen before but were darn handy (the modifications to my canoe will be complete before the next trip).

Constantly changing scenery, never knowing what lay around the next bend, and a timely swimming hole, were the order of the day. A wide variety of terrains meant we were portaging, lining, paddling, and doing pull-overs. And of course, Mike's secret shortcut (add one hour).

Hope, Andrew, and Bernie took turns trying out my canoe. I had never seen my canoe from this perspective and blew a whole roll of film trying to capture the feeling. There is nothing like seeing a cedar canvas canoe being paddled by an expert. We arrived at our campsite hungry but not exhausted. Simple camp fare of smoked salmon (Ambereen even served it on a tray as she walked around the campsite saying "Hors d'oeuvre?"), chicken stir fry, steamed rice, carrot cake, and wine seemed to relax everyone after we came in from our swim. The moon, stars, loons calling, Celine's songs...nobody wanted to go to bed... so we didn't. We stayed up really late and Kamal brought out his harmonica to accompany Celine. Next morning we got up pretty early for coffee and a swim. The new day brought more laughter, adventure and camaraderie.

Sleep deprived, we headed back home, ready to face the world with enthusiasm and red eyes. Three cheers for Celine, our trip leader and five star rating for the trip.